Lisa Nandy has quit X

Max Thompson, Campaigns Officer

6 July 2026

Lisa Nandy has taken the decision to leave X. The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport departed the platform — and took her government department with her — on Thursday night.

In one final post, Ms Nandy wrote: "I've decided to leave this platform and my Department will too. A platform originally designed for free speech and expression now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate. It isn't healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don't want to support it."

Well, when has Lisa Nandy ever cared about free speech?

Since July 2024, when Labour returned to power, Ms Nandy has served in Sir Keir Starmer's Government as a senior Cabinet Minister responsible for the media sector. The Starmer administration is widely seen as one of the most authoritarian of modern times, with a number of its policies — either successfully put on the statute books or rammed through Parliament at breakneck speed with limited scrutiny — posing a direct threat to freedom of speech.

Astonishingly, Ms Nandy also claimed that she believed X now poses a threat to democracy. This is a striking position from someone who was conspicuously silent when Sir Keir Starmer and the Communities Secretary, Steve Reed, initially tried to cancel a string of local elections earlier this year.

It is striking that the Secretary of State responsible for media has decided that she would rather leave X — a platform praised and criticised for its commitment to free speech since coming under the ownership of Elon Musk — over the spread of misinformation and disinformation. That is surely a dereliction of duty from the minister. The best antidote to misinformation and disinformation is engaging in the debate and setting the record straight.

Ironically, Ms Nandy, who appears to have found a new love of free speech, has also blocked anyone from responding to her post on X.

It was also Nandy — the free speech warrior — who appeared in the House of Commons last week setting out the Government's plans under its new green paper Watch This Space. Under these plans, the Government intends to denote what it deems to be a "trustworthy" news source and force social media companies to prioritise its promotion above all others. As the Reform UK MP Robert Jenrick told the Secretary of State in the House of Commons, "This is dystopian."

What should concern us all is Nandy's close proximity to her constituency neighbour, the self-styled "King of the North" and our next Prime Minister, Andy Burnham. Should Nandy remain in Cabinet, she will likely be the minister tasked with carrying out the wishes of Andy Burnham — and Love Actually's Hugh Grant— which is, of course, bringing the free British press under increased state regulation.

Burnham has long been a fierce advocate of greater state regulation of the press, and was swept to victory in the Makerfield by-election with the support of the veteran actor and press regulation campaigner Hugh Grant. As Shadow Home Secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, Burnham campaigned for the second part of the Leveson Inquiry, calling it "non-negotiable." He was also a proponent of Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, legislation designed to force news publishers to join a state-backed regulator.

We will soon see how resolved Ms Nandy is to the protection of free speech.

Read more in The Telegraph.