Sir Keir Starmer has led UK tributes to Donald Trump ally and right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk after he was shot dead at an event on Wednesday evening.
The death was announced on social media by Mr Trump, who praised the 31-year-old, as “Great, and even Legendary”. Mr Kirk, 31, the co-founder and chief executive of the youth organisation Turning Point USA, was shot at a Utah Valley University show.
“No-one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social account.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox has called the incident a “political assassination”, adding the person responsible would be held accountable.
Kim Leadbeater, whose sister Jo Cox was killed in 2016 when she was shot and stabbed by a neo-Nazi outside her constituency surgery a week before the 2016 EU referendum, and prime minister Sir Keir Starmer were among a raft of British leaders to speak out against political violence following the killings.
Ms Leadbeater, who is now a Labour MP in her sister’s former constituency, wrote: “This is dreadful.
“Whatever our political views and differences, there is no place for violence in our politics.
“Tonight two children have lost their Dad. Devastating. We need a global reset on what we want our politics to look like.”
Sir Keir Starmer also paid tribute to Mr Kirk. The prime minister said: “My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk.
“It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.
“We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear – there can be no justification for political violence.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who previously mentioned a decade-long friendship with Mr Kirk, shared a photo with the right-wing activist on X which he captioned: “This is a very dark day for American democracy. I am desperately sad for Charlie, his wife and children.”
Conservative MP and leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch said the death of Mr Kirk was “a blow to everything Western civilization stands for” in a statement following his death.
“There are no words good enough to express the horror of this”, she said. “The killing of Charlie Kirk is a blow to everything Western civilization stands for: open discourse, robust debate and peaceful dissent. He lived his life by those very principles, no matter the danger it put him in.”
Former prime minister Boris Johnson called Mr Kirk a “shining new martyr to free speech” in a tribute to him.
“The murder of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy, and a sign of the utter desperation and cowardice of those who could not defeat him in argument. Charlie Kirk has been killed not for espousing extremist views – because he didn’t.
“He has been killed for saying things that used to be simple common sense”, he continued. “He has been killed because he had the courage to stand up publicly for reasonable opinions held by millions and millions of ordinary people both in the US and Britain. The world has a shining new martyr to free speech.”
Mr Kirk was CEO, chief fundraiser, and the public face of Turning Point USA from its founding in 2012 to his death in 2025. Turning Point UK, a British offshoot of the right wing student pressure group, was established in 2019.
Utah’s governor has warned that whoever is responsible for the death of Mr Kirk will be held accountable “to the full extent of the law.”
“We have a person of interest in custody. I want to make it crystal clear to whoever is responsible… and we will hold you accountable to the full extent of the law,” Cox said. “And I want to remind you, we still have the death penalty here.”
“Our nation is broken, he added. “I don’t care what his politics are. I care that he was American.”
