Starmer warned children will be at risk if he gives in to JD Vance free speech demands to get trade deal
Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that giving in to US demands over free speech to secure a trade deal will harm children.
The concerns have been raised after sources close to the Trump administration claimed vice-president JD Vance wants the UK to repeal hate speech laws and ditch plans for a new online safety law in exchange for a trade deal that could see the UK avoid tariffs.
He has previously suggested that free speech is being undermined by laws banning hateful comments, including abuse targeting LGBT+ groups or other minorities, and sees UK legislation aimed at improving online safety as an attack on US tech giants.
Both the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and the think tank The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) have highlighted concerns over any retreat by Labour on either area.
Matthew Sowemimo, associate head of policy for child safety online at the NSPCC, said: “The Online Safety Act offers a foundation that we believe will vastly improve children’s experiences online.
“For too long, too many children and young people have been exposed to harmful content, groomed, harassed, and bullied online.
“To ensure this vital legislation reaches its potential, we need the UK government to ensure the Online Safety Act is strongly implemented and bolstered where needed. They must be holding Ofcom and tech companies to account, and ensuring the act has enough weight behind it to change the tide for children’s safety online.”
Sophia Worringer, deputy policy director at the CSJ, said: “We have a deeply unhappy generation, amplified by the cancer of social media, whose childhood spent online is threatening their adulthood. Added to this is the ballooning welfare bill with more young people than ever going straight from education into long-term sickness benefit.
“Unless we act now to increase the age of digital consent to 16 and ban algorithms for users under 16, our forecasts show that one quarter of all UK children will suffer from a mental disorder by 2030. This is a national emergency, and we need to act now.”
The concerns came after the vice-president said he was optimistic on the prospect of a UK trade deal with the US, adding that Donald Trump’s administration is “working very hard” to get it done.
But Washington sources warned that Mr Vance is “obsessed with the collapse of western civilisation” and has linked what he sees as an erosion of free speech in the UK and Europe to getting a trade deal done.
As well as hate speech laws, he has also raised concerns about legal cases against Christians for praying silently outside abortion clinics.
The Independent was told: “The vice-president expressing optimism [on a trade deal] is a way of putting further pressure on the UK over free speech. If a deal does not go through, it makes Labour look bad.”
The vice-president does have supporters in the UK for his agenda. Lord Toby Young from the Free Speech Union has said he supports Mr Vance’s desire for hate speech and online safety laws to be removed.
Lord Young said: “I would prefer it if His Majesty’s government stood up for free speech of its own volition. But as it has no intention of doing so, I welcome a bit of pressure from our American cousins.
“I think JD Vance is absolutely right to raise the alarm about the UK and its European neighbours losing sight of free speech and it’s of vital importance to the proper functioning of liberal democracy.
“European political elites are increasingly trying to silence their critics by passing laws against misinformation, disinformation and hate speech, rather than engaging in open debate about issues like immigration, climate change and abortion.”
However, Stephen Kinsella from the Clean Up the Internet campaign group warned: “Watering down online safety rules to get a trade deal with Trump would be a huge mistake. Rules to keep our children safe, and to protect our society from hate and extremism, simply shouldn’t be up for negotiation.
“But it also just doesn’t make any kind of economic sense. Right now we are all footing a huge bill for unsafe social media sites, for example in money lost to fraud, or in taxpayers’ money to deal with the fallout of the damage to mental health.
“The government’s own figures show that the cost of unsafe social media is over £30bn per year. Watering down online safety bills would mean the UK continues to have to pay billions to clear up the mess caused by the US companies, and that’s not a good deal for us to strike.”
Downing Street has insisted that free speech concerns have not been raised in the trade negotiations, with US trade secretary Howard Lutnick taking the lead in most of the talks with UK business secretary Jonathan Reynolds.
The UK is hoping for a specialised trade deal with the US which will largely focus on integrating the two countries for future growth industries such as artificial intelligence and biotech.
However, there have been further complications over President Trump’s threat of tariffs which he has suspended for 90 days. The UK car industry is facing 25 per cent tariffs while the UK as a whole would be hit by taxes of at least 10 per cent on all exports to the US.
Part of Mr Trump’s claims is that online safety laws, as well as VAT are barriers to US trade.
The hope is that a trade deal between the two countries would eliminate most tariffs.
