Nigel Farage has urged US politicians and businesses to tell the British government “you’ve simply got this wrong” on freedom of speech rules, as he compared the UK to North Korea.
The Reform UK leader was in Washington DC giving evidence to a US congressional committee holding a hearing into whether European laws “threaten Americans’ right to speak freely in the US”.
Citing the cases of writer Graham Linehan and a woman who was jailed over a racist tweet, Farage spoke about what he called “the really awful authoritarian situation that the UK has sunk into”.
During the session he was heavily criticised by some Democratic members of Congress, including Jamie Raskin who labelled him a “Putin-loving free speech impostor”.
Responding to Farage’s appearance at the committee, Labour’s Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “Jetting off to another country and hyping up the prospect of the UK’s trade with our closest allies being hit is about as anti-British as you can get.”
Earlier in the day Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accused Farage of having “flown to America to badmouth and talk down our country” adding: “He has gone there to lobby the Americans to impose sanctions on this country that will harm working people.”
In his written recommendations to Congress, Farage suggested the US government should use “diplomacy and trade” to defend its position on free speech against the UK.
However, speaking to members of Congress, he insisted he was not calling for sanctions but instead wanted American companies and politicians to have “honest conversations” with the UK about free speech.
Farage was giving evidence two days after Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan was arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of inciting violence in relation to posts on the social media site X.
“This could happen to any American man or woman that goes to Heathrow that has said things online that the British government and British police don’t like.
“At what point did we become North Korea?”
He said the jail sentence given to Lucy Connolly – who was imprisoned after pleading guilty to stirring up racial hatred against asylum seekers – was “living proof of what can go wrong” with free speech restrictions.
The Reform UK leader also criticised the Online Safety Act, a law originally drawn up by the Conservatives but passed by the Labour government.
The law is aimed at making the internet safer for users, particularly children and sets out rules online platforms such as Facebook and X have to follow.
The duties include preventing young people from seeing material such as pornography and harmful content relating to suicide.
The act also requires companies to demonstrate that they are taking steps to take down illegal content from child sexual abuse to selling illegal drugs or weapons.
Farage told the committee it was important to “protect kids” from seeing dangerous material on the internet and that he didn’t “have all the answers”.
But he said the Online Safety Act gave Ofcom “the most extraordinary and arbitrary powers” and that his party would repeal it, if elected to government.
The Labour government has previously defended the bill as a “huge step forward” in internet safety.
@Nigel_FarageRepublicans on the congressional committee praised Farage, and President Donald Trump later hosted him in the Oval Office.
The long-time Trump-ally posted a picture of himself standing next to Trump behind the president’s famous Resolute desk, including a caption: “It’s good to be back in the Oval Office.”
But he received a tougher reception from Democratic representatives.
Hank Johnson, who represents a district in Georgia, said Farage was “a fringe party leader” who was “here today to impress all of those tech bros”.
Congressman Raskin said: “To the people of the UK who think this Putin-loving free speech impostor and Trump sycophant will protect freedom in this country, come on over to America and see what Trump and Maga [Make America Great Again] are doing to destroy our freedom… you might… think twice before you let Mr Farage make Britain great again.”
Raskin also questioned why Reform UK had prevented its councillors in Nottinghamshire from speaking to the local newspaper and its website, the Nottingham Post and Nottinghamshire Live.
Farage said he regularly took questions from a large range of journalists.
He later told the he was going to see Mick Barton, the leader of Nottinghamshire Council on Friday and would “have a little chat with him”.
