New polling shows most Britons believe Government only protects free speech it agrees with

Max Thompson, Campaigns Officer

29 September 2026

New polling from More in Common, commissioned by the human rights organisation Liberty, has found that a majority of Britons believe the Government only protects free speech that it agrees with — and that its free speech failures could cost the Party votes at the next general election.

The survey found that 54 per cent of Britons believe the Government only protects speech it agrees with. The polling dropped just hours after supporters of the proscribed group Palestine Action were arrested for protesting outside the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.

Liberty has said the polling is a "very clear warning sign" to the new Prime Minister that the actions of the Labour Government over the last two years have fuelled "accusations of two-tier enforcement" of speech laws in Britain. The former Prime Minister, ousted by his own party in July, Sir Keir Starmer, earned himself the nickname "two tier Keir", largely due to egregious examples of two-tier policing of speech, both on and offline, during his ill-fated premiership.

The findings are particularly concerning because the one aspect of free speech that British citizens value most is their ability to freely criticise their Government — a staple of a healthy, functioning democracy, and perhaps something we have all been guilty of taking for granted.

Burnham's 'Ministry of Truth'

Last Monday, when Andy Burnham made his first speech at the United Nations, he announced the establishment of the 'National Centre for Information Defence'. The Prime Minister argued this would be a necessary tool in the fight against Russian information warfare, which he claims is influencing our elections, sowing division amongst communities, and pushing people towards the political extremes by selling them counter-narratives about Britain. While we must defend ourselves against malign and hostile actors that seek to threaten our democracy, we should not be fooled into thinking that is what this new government body is about.

Burnham said the quango would help community cohesion by countering negative narratives about Britain. What this inevitably means is an increase in the monitoring and policing of British citizens and their comments on social media. Anyone who challenges the Government on any one of its progressive causes, or its failure to tackle mass uncontrolled illegal migration — something Burnham himself denies — may well find themselves with a knock on the door from the police after an Orwellian Whitehall unit brands their post 'hate speech' or 'misinformation'. It risks becoming Labour's 'Ministry of Truth'.

Liberty has said a number of government actions — particularly the clampdown on protests carried out by the Starmer Government — have contributed to these dire polling results. Other actions include arrests for communication offences online, something the Free Speech Union is very much aware of through our own members, and the Labour Government's abject failure to defend free speech since coming to power.

The new polling also shows that Labour's failure to protect free speech in Government could cost it votes at the next election. Three in five people said a political party's position on free speech would influence how they voted at a general election.

It also revealed that two in five said the arrest of people holding signs in support of the proscribed group Palestine Action had a negative impact on free speech. In another sign that should worry Andy Burnham, only one in seven thought he cared more about free speech than his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer.

While free speech is often treated as a battleground between the political left and right, this research suggests that concern about the ability to speak freely is something that crosses party lines.

Britons prize their ability to criticise the government, to express their views without legal or professional consequences, and to debate issues openly.

In focus groups we hear how people on both the left and the right value hearing views that don't align with their own, and how both fear that is being lost — for some because of social pressure or legal fears, and for others because of their concerns around restrictions on social media content or protest.

Director of More in Common, Luke Tryl, said this, adding: "Of the concerns Britons raise about free speech, one tops the list for voters of every major party — that the laws are not applied consistently to everyone. Britons want every topic to be up for discussion, no matter how strongly we disagree. Their worry is that this is becoming harder to do."

This polling follows other recent polling commissioned by Liberty and reported in The Telegraph in August, which found that a majority of Britons (51 per cent) believe free speech has become more restricted under Labour.

The Free Speech Union has long argued, since Labour entered Government in July 2024, that the free speech crisis in Britain has got considerably worse. This is illustrated by the growth in the FSU's membership, which has ballooned from 14,000 at the time of the last election to more than 48,500 today.

Director of Liberty, Akiko Hart, told The Independent: "Free speech is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy that enables us to hold the powerful to account, speak openly, and express our differences without fear of state intervention. It is deeply concerning that millions of people feel that the Government isn't safeguarding that right."

The polling paints a stark picture of where we are as a country on free speech — it's one that is characterised by a deep mistrust in our political institutions to protect our fundamental rights and which is being fuelled by accusations of two-tier enforcement. Fundamentally, selectively defending speech will not win anyone over. If anything, it does the complete opposite. It makes our society more polarised and our country more divided. Our message to the Government is clear: defend the principle of free speech across the political spectrum and show the real leadership needed on the issue.

The free speech crisis in Britain is a national embarrassment, and there is no sign that it will improve under the premiership of Andy Burnham.

Join the Free Speech Union today and read more in The Independent.