The polls closed at 10pm tonight, and at time of going to press it looks as if Labour is on course for a landslide majority in the House of Commons.
Since its formation in 2020, the Free Speech Union’s (FSU’s) pitch to members has always been that it is a non-partisan organisation that will defend those who get into trouble for exercising their right to free speech regardless of their political views, provided they stay within the law.
While we remain steadfast in that mission, we are nevertheless worried that a Labour government will bring in new laws that will criminalise vast swathes of speech that are currently legal and we anticipate fighting a number of test cases in which we challenge whether those laws are compatible with our existing laws, including the Human Rights Act.
For instance, Labour has said it will bring in a “trans-inclusive” conversion therapy ban, something the FSU has long been campaigning against. Conversion therapy, as commonly understood, is already against the law in Britain and it’s a practice that has long died out. So what does Labour want to ban, exactly? The answer is any deviation from the ‘affirmative care’ approach when parents and medical professionals are confronted by gender confused adolescents. The FSU is concerned that if Labour passes this law, parents who try to talk their children out of having dangerous medical procedures will end up in jail. That’s a law we think may be incompatible with clause 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to a family and private life, and Article 10, which protects the right to free speech.
Another source of concern is Labour’s Race Equality Act, which will spawn an even greater proliferation of anti-racism training in the workplace. As we’ve seen at the FSU, if you challenge this training – pointing out that the UK is one of the least racist countries in the world, for instance – you could find yourself out of a job. We anticipate being involved in lots of Employment Tribunal cases in which we help people who’ve been fired for challenging woke diversity training by arguing that their scepticism about, say, Critical Race Theory, is a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act 2010.
We’re also worried about things Labour may do that weren’t flagged up in its manifesto. For instance, it could pass a Hate Crime and Public Order (England and Wales) Act that replicates the Scottish Hate Crime Act south of the border. If that happens, we will set up a Hate Speech Hotline in England and Wales, just as we’ve done in Scotland, so any member that has their collar felt for supposedly committing a speech-related ‘hate crime’ can be provided with top legal support.
There’s also a risk that Labour will criminalise ‘Islamophobia’ as defined by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims. According to that definition, which the Labour Party has accepted, any criticism of the religion of Islam is ‘Islamophobic’. With his background as a former Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Keir Starmer may try to do this in a behind-the-scenes way rather than through primary legislation, issuing guidance to the police and the Crime Prosecution Service, as well as to the Courts and Tribunals, to broaden the definition of the ‘Stirring Up’ religious hatred offence under the Public Order Act 1986 to include ‘Islamophobia’.
Finally, we think there’s a real risk Labour will attack the freedom of the press, forcing newspapers and magazines to sign up to a state-controlled press regulator. If that happens, we will defend any newspaper or magazine that refuses to kowtow in this way, appealing to Article 10 of the European Convention, among other things.
The bottom line is there’s a real risk that under a Labour government tens of thousands of people will find themselves in trouble for saying things that are perfectly legal at present. If you think we’ve become a society that won’t tolerate dissent from a narrow, radical progressive ideology, you ain’t seen nothing yet
Over the next five years, we anticipate a surge in demand for the FSU’s services, with our legal department being particularly busy.
Please therefore donate to our new Legal Fighting Fund by clicking here.
And if you know anyone you think could get into trouble under a Labour government for exercising their right to free speech, please direct them towards our sign-up page here.
