The ability to speak freely on important or controversial issues without “facing legal consequences” and faith in the government to protect speech have fallen over the two years of Labour rule under Sir Keir Starmer and now Andy Burnham, polling claims to have found.
Polling for Human Rights NGO group Liberty finds public sentiment in Britain is very much against the notion of the left-wing Labour government being a defender of liberal values like Freedom of Speech. A majority, at 51 per cent, are reported by The Daily Telegraph to say confidence in the government protecting the right to express views — even if those views are contrary to what the government believes — has fallen over the last two years of Labour rule.
Just one in ten of respondents said they felt their confidence in the government looking out for freedom of speech rights had improved these past two years.
The polling also asked some other very specific questions on freedom of speech issues. Aside whether the government was doing enough to protect rights, on the straight matter of whether the respondent felt their ability to speak freely on important issues had worsened in the past two years, 39 per cent said it had got worse, compared to ten per cent who said it was better.
Underlining the threat to freedom of speech isn’t just from intolerant neighbours or professional consequences, and comes explicitly from the government too, a parallel question asked what those interviewed felt had happened to their ability to “express controversial political opinions without facing legal consequences”. An even larger 42 per cent said it was worse, compared to nine per cent who think things are getting better.
Campaign group Liberty blamed this worsening of public faith in Britain’s tradition of free speech and the government’s role on policy decisions by the left-wing Labour government of Sir Keir Starmer, including banning foreign speakers from travelling to Britain to address events or conferences, arrests of pro-Palestine activists, and threats to ban Palestine protests.
They said former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had failed to show “leadership and consistency” and had fuelled the perception of “two tier” policing in Britain with his words and actions. The NGO said the findings should be a “warning” to the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham and called on him to “adopt a non-partisan approach to free speech and move away from greater restrictions”.
If Britons have noticed the sudden acceleration in erosion of their inherited freedoms, then foreign observers definitively have. Opposing the threat to liberty in Britain and Europe has been a small but consequential foreign policy focus of the Donald Trump Presidency, with his emissaries calling out egregious free speech failures and telling allied governments to do more to defend common values.
Vice President JD Vance and U.S. Undersecretary of State Sarah B. Rogers have been particularly active on this beat. In 2025, Vance warned Europe is at risk of “civilizational suicide” over both open borders policies and speech restrictions, and said: “I want Europe to thrive. I want them to be an important ally. Part of that is going to be Europe respecting its own people, respecting its own sovereignty, and America can’t do that job for them”.
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