Sir Keir Starmer accused of launching assault on free speech after announcing plans to ditch woke cancel culture law
LABOUR has been accused of an assault on free speech over plans to ditch a law blocking university cancel culture.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson yesterday said she was considering repealing anti-woke Tory legislation.
The law, set to come into force next week, would have allowed the Office for Students regulator to fine universities and student unions if they did not protect freedom of speech sufficiently.
It followed campus protests over academics expressing views students did not agree with.
In a written Parliament statement on the law, Ms Phillipson said she was now to “consider options, including its repeal”.
She went on: “I am aware of concerns that the Act would be burdensome on providers and on the OfS and I will confirm my long-term plans as soon as possible.”
She also said she wanted the OfS to be “more sharply focused” on financial stability at universities, with 40 per cent struggling.
Shadow Education Secretary Damian Hinds said: “Without the ability to freely express views in higher education, these centres of learning risk becoming centres of co-option and intolerance.
“The fact this Labour government is willing to scrap the measures we put in place to protect these rights makes clear that they are willing to sacrifice the next generation on the altar of their own ideological dogma.”
The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 was created after multiple controversies where academics like Dr Heather Brunskell-Evans and Kathleen Stock were “cancelled” for their views on transgender issues.
Professor of Maths at Queen Mary University of London Abhishek Saha slammed Labour’s decision as “a ghastly, shameful, tragic decision”.
Professor of Music at City University London Ian Pace also wrote on X: “Terrible, terrible news and a sign that with Phillipson as Education Secretary, there is no future for freedom of speech or academic freedom, and our universities will continue to degrade. We need better.”