Kemi Badenoch backs President Donald Trump, declaring free speech in the UK is ‘at risk’
KEMI Badenoch backed Donald Trump yesterday as she declared that free speech in the UK is “at risk”.
The Tory chief warned that cops should not be “persecuting people for expressing themselves” after the US State Department slammed the case of British woman Livia Tossici-Bolt, who allegedly breached a buffer zone around an abortion clinic.
Ms Tossici-Bolt was holding a sign saying “here if you want to talk” outside the Bournemouth clinic and was taken to court over accusations she breached the Public Spaces Protection Order.
The verdict for her case is due on Friday.
In a rare intervention over the weekend, the Trump State Department posted on X: “US-UK relations share a mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
“However, as Vice President JD Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.”
On Tuesday Ms Badenoch said: “We have freedom of expression in this country, we have free speech in this country.
“However it is at risk because a lot of people are expanding the law way beyond the original intention.”
In February, Vance ripped into Britain over free speech and attacked Europe’s immigration policies.
He said: “When I look at Europe today, it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners.
“And perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.”
