The new Education Secretary said she would “stop further commencement” of a university free speech law just days before its implementation as cancelling and harassment of pro-lifers at university escalates.
In a statement on Friday, the recently appointed Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said “I have written to colleagues separately about my decision to stop further commencement of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, in order to consider options, including its repeal”.
“I am aware of concerns that the Act would be burdensome on providers and on the [Office for Students], and I will confirm my long-term plans as soon as possible”.
Appointed by the Prime Minister following the Labour Party victory in the General Election earlier this month, Phillipson’s decision to halt the law comes just days before the Act was due to be implemented.
Powers to investigate and fine student unions that fail to meet free speech obligations
Under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, universities, colleges and student unions in England and Wales would have a legal “[d]uty to promote the importance of freedom of speech and academic freedom”.
The Act gives the Office for Students (OfS) the power to investigate and impose a “monetary penalty” on student unions that do not fulfil their free speech duties under the Act, including protecting the free speech of visiting speakers.
Sir Gavin Williamson, who introduced the law as Education Secretary last year, told The Telegraph “Over the last thirty years we have seen the gradual but continuous erosion of free speech within higher education institutions and that is why I put legislation in place to protect it”.
“The Labour government’s decision to scrap free speech protections just says it does not care for free and wide-ranging debate. Rather, it is willing to turn a blind eye, while dissenting academic voices are hounded off campus”.
The decision comes less than four months after a “screaming pro-abortion mob” forced local police to provide an escort to a pro-life speaker at the University of Manchester who had to take transport to a different location because it was “not safe” to go directly to her accommodation.
Police had to be called to protect pro-life students from a barrage of abuse and physical intimidation by pro-abortion student protestors at the university after Madeline Page, CEO of the Alliance of Pro-life Students (APS), delivered a talk titled “Grill the pro-lifer”. The university had faced a very similar incident only weeks prior.
Pro-life free speech crisis
Since 2017, student representative bodies at Aberdeen University, Glasgow University, Nottingham University and Strathclyde University have all tried to prevent student pro-life groups from being affiliated with their university and benefiting from the same privileges available to any other student group. In each of these cases, the students’ unions had to reverse their decision after the groups threatened legal proceedings against them. Students at Birmingham University also had significant difficulty becoming affiliated with the university but eventually won out against significant opposition.
In 2019, in the first case of its kind, a midwifery student at Nottingham University was suspended and faced possible expulsion from her course after a lecturer raised concerns about her role in the University’s pro-life group. Only after beginning legal action was the University’s decision overturned. Towards the end of 2020, this incident was closed after the university extended an apology to the student and offered compensation for her unjust suspension.
Almost a quarter of pro-life students have been “threatened, abused, alarmed or distressed” for being pro-life at university, according to a 2021 poll.
According to polling by the national student pro-life group, the Alliance of Pro-Life Students (APS), over 71.9% of pro-life students report that they have faced situations in lectures or seminars where they felt they could not speak about their views.
23.8% of those surveyed said they had been “threatened, abused, alarmed or distressed – by actions or words – by another student or academic” because of their membership of a pro-life society. A further 35% of the participants reported that they had seen events cancelled due to the “de-platforming” of pro-life speakers. 65% of pro-life students had “witnessed another student being discriminated against or harassed for holding pro-life views”.
A 2020 survey undertaken by Survation for legal advocacy group, ADF International, has found that 27% of university students have ‘hidden’ their opinions that they believe may be at odds with those of their university.
The same survey found that 44% of students believe that their lecturers would treat them differently if they made their views known, and that 38% believe that their future careers might be adversely affected if they openly expressed their true opinions.
The survey, which received responses from 1,028 current university students and recent graduates across the country, showed that 40% of students have witnessed an increase in the cancellation of events due to the views held by the speaker at their university.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “It is a real shame that the new Labour government has decided to cease the implementation of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 before it has even started. There is an urgent need to protect the freedom of speech of pro-life groups in particular, who have a well-documented history of being subjected to harassment and abuse”.
