Labour has just surrendered to the enemies of free speech
We are three weeks into a Labour Government, and yet another dire decision has been slipped out without scrutiny. In this case, the defence of free speech. The new Education Secretary has decided to stop the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act dead in its tracks in order to consider its repeal.
Unless you’re an avid campaigner in this area, you would barely have noticed. It was announced at the end of a written statement tucked away on the Parliament website. There was no debate in the chamber, no opportunity for scrutiny from MPs, no press release. I suppose that’s quite fitting considering the matter in hand.
I was the minister who delivered this legislation, which protects the free speech of academics and students in our universities. Labour fought us every step of the way. They were more concerned about the workload of university administrators than the needs of students and academics whose free speech had been curtailed – speaking events had been cancelled, placements at universities had been withdrawn, and in the very worst cases, careers had been ruined.
For what reason? Because they had shared views which were not hateful, nor illegal, but merely controversial.
This shouldn’t surprise us. The kind of world the radical Left want is one where no debate is allowed. Let’s look at recent history. If you questioned whether vulnerable women’s spaces should be protected, they called you a bigot. If you questioned whether it was fair to impose the Ulez tax on those with the lowest incomes, they called you a flat-earther. If you questioned whether excessive lockdowns harmed the mental health of our children, you were a granny killer.
Labour cannot hide from who they are – a party of people so wrapped up in the politics of student unions that rather than debate an issue, their instinct is to shut down the other side.
Our Freedom of Speech Act held universities accountable for the state of free speech on campus and gave academics, students and speakers the right to go to court if their rights were wrongly infringed. It created a new free speech director with a legal duty to protect free speech and investigate cases of no-platforming at universities.
During the passage of the Act, I was horrified to hear the stories of those who had fallen foul of cancel culture and self-censorship on campus. One group of mathematicians were being pressured into “decolonising” their curriculum by suppressing the work of “white mathematicians” and elevating that of “non-white mathematicians”. The message I heard from them was one I heard countless times: “We are fearful of speaking out because of the potential for a backlash that could put our jobs at risk.”
The truth is that Labour politicians are in denial about the scale of this issue, and they don’t think free speech is worth protecting. This week the Education Secretary told the BBC that the culture wars on campus “end here”. But the culture wars are not being waged by those who want a free debate on divisive ideology. They are being waged by radical groups of activists on the Left who believe their own sense of self-righteousness trumps the right of other people to disagree. It takes an eye-watering amount of delusion to accuse people of starting culture wars, when it is those people who are holding the line of mainstream opinion.
This is the greatest risk that Labour poses. They want to push an incredibly radical agenda, but they also want to do that without debate. One of the fundamental reasons I’m a Conservative is that I believe in our right to ask difficult questions and to say difficult things.
The Left’s instincts are what led to vulnerable children being put at risk because of the demands of activist groups like Stonewall. It will lead to the rewriting of our rich history, and if not stopped it will lead to an ideological approach to net zero that will leave our nation poorer. If we do not stand up for our right to ask questions, I shudder to think where Labour will take us next.
Claire Coutinho is the shadow energy secretary and Conservative MP for East Surrey