Badenoch: I fear Labour will erode free speech with blasphemy laws

Telegraph

24-04-2025

Kemi Badenoch has warned that Labour is a threat to free speech in Britain after some of the party's MPs backed blasphemy laws.
In an interview with The Telegraph, the Tory leader hit out at an 'authoritarian' streak in the governing party that she said was placing freedom of expression 'under threat'.
It comes as Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, plans to introduce a new definition of Islamophobia, which critics have warned could amount to a de facto blasphemy law.
Last year, a Labour backbencher also used Prime Minister's Questions to propose a law banning the 'desecration' of religious texts and prophets.
Mrs Badenoch told The Telegraph's Planet Normal podcast: 'I don't think Labour understands the importance of free speech, how it is a core British value.
'When you look at some of the rhetoric that we hear from Labour MPs, a lot of authoritarian stuff. We have Labour MPs talking about blasphemy laws.
'That's not free speech. They haven't brought it in yet, but we need to be very vigilant that we do not allow the erosion of core principles like freedom of speech in the UK.'
Mrs Badenoch said she disagreed with JD Vance, the US vice-president, who said that free speech was 'disappearing' in the UK, but warned it was 'under threat'.
Ms Rayner is overseeing plans to introduce a formal definition of Islamophobia to combat anti-Muslim hatred.
She has set up a five-person working group, led by Dominic Grieve, the former Tory attorney general, to come up with 'appropriate and sensitive language'.
While in opposition, Labour said it would adopt a controversial definition of Islamophobia that was drawn up in 2018 by an all-party parliamentary group.
Critics warned that definition was open to such wide interpretation that it would act as a de facto blasphemy law and stifle criticism of Islam as a religion.
Last November, Tahir Ali, a Labour MP, urged Sir Keir to act to 'prohibit the desecration of all religious texts and the prophets of the Abrahamic religions'.
In his response, at Prime Minister's Questions, the Prime Minister did not directly reject the demand, simply replying that 'desecration is awful and should be condemned'.
The exchange prompted accusations that Labour was planning to introduce blasphemy laws, which ministers were subsequently forced to deny.
'Extreme activists took root'
In the interview, Mrs Badenoch also admitted that the Tories 'ended up just allowing extreme activists to take root' by looking the other way on gender ideology.
Asked about last week's Supreme Court ruling, she said that the party had been initially too dismissive of women's concerns as a 'niche issue'.
'One of the lessons that my party has now learnt is that sometimes just because everybody agrees on something doesn't mean it's right, and that sometimes you have to pay attention to things that don't look like big issues,' she said.
'This stuff was allowed to seed for a very long time because many people thought, 'well, you know, we don't talk about this. We talk about the economy. Just ignore it – this is a niche issue'. And also believing that this was how you showed support for people who were LGBT.'
Mrs Badenoch said that approach had led the Tories to forget their principles, including standing up for basic freedoms.
'By not looking at the principles and just going along with what many people have been saying, initially we ended up just allowing extreme activists to take root,' she added.