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MP launches Bill to protect freedom of speech at university

A Conservative MP is advancing a Bill to protect freedom of speech at universities from a “corrosive trend… that aims to prevent anybody from airing ideas that groups disagree with or would be offended by”.

Last week, David Davis MP offered an impassioned defence of the importance of freedom of speech in Britain as “fundamental to the development of our culture, our society, our literature, our science and our economy”.

In his speech on Tuesday 19th January he said:

“[T]oday the cancel culture movement think it is reasonable to obliterate the views of people they disagree with, rather than challenge them in open debate. They are wrong. Why? Because the unwillingness to hear uncomfortable opinion and the refusal of platforms to people they disagree with is damaging to us all”.

“Let us be clear: it is not about protecting delicate sensibilities from offence; it is about censorship”.

In the course of his speech Mr Davis listed a number of public figures from across the political spectrum who have been ‘no-platformed’ (banned from speaking) at universities in Britain including, Peter Hitchens, Germaine Greer and Peter Tatchell.

In light of this importance of freedom of speech and Mr Davis’ view of the attacks to which it is subjected, he proposed the Freedom of Speech (Universities) Bill which “would, in effect, make universities responsible for upholding free speech throughout their campuses,” and make it possible to fine universities which fail to uphold its duties in this regard.

The Freedom of Speech (Universities) Bill is a Ten Minute Rule Bill, which are usually used by MPs as a vehicle to raise the profile of an issue in Parliament, as Ten Minute Rule Bills rarely progress to becoming law.

Pro-lifers censored

This Bill will likely be heavily supported by pro-lifers and pro-life students in particular who have experienced discrimination by university authorities of different kinds for many years.

In what appears to have become a pattern at universities across the UK, many pro-life groups have been hindered in their ability to speak freely and enjoy the same benefits as other student societies.

In the last four years, 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 student 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.

More than a quarter of students self-censor

While pro-lifers will likely welcome Mr Davis’ Bill, the problem of censorship and a culture of intimidation in British universities is widespread and affects students across the political spectrum.

A recent 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.

Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said: “David Davis’ Bill is welcome respite from the persistent attacks on the freedom of speech of pro-lifers at university. As he rightly points out, those who are most wronged by this censorship are not the speakers themselves but their audience who lose an opportunity to hear an alternative perspective, learn something new, understand their own and their opponents’ beliefs better, and maybe, hear the truth of the pro-life position: that the unborn child should be given the same rights and protections as other human beings are given at any other stage in life. Abortion is bad for the baby, it is bad for his or her mother and it is bad for society”.

“We need not think of abortion as a battle between competing rights: the right to life of the baby and the right for a woman to choose what to do with her own body, not least because her baby in her womb is not her body. Rather, the pro-life view, which is so seldom heard, is positive about mothers and their babies. Pro-lifers do not believe that society has to choose between one and the other. We can love them both. Is such a view really so terrifying that it simply must be censored?”

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Dear reader,

We are facing two major threats in the Lords - an extreme assisted suicide Bill and an abortion up to birth amendment.

THE GOOD NEWS - OUR STRATEGY IS WORKING

At Second Reading of the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill in the House of Lords, a record number of Peers spoke, and of those who took a position, around two-thirds opposed the assisted suicide Bill. That is more than double the number who supported it.

Our side also secured a significant win, with the establishment of a dedicated Lords Select Committee to further scrutinise the Bill’s proposals – and Committee Stage has been delayed until it reports.

This momentum has been built by tens of thousands of people like you. Thanks to your hard work, Peers are receiving a very large number of emails and letters by post, making the case against the Bill. 

Thanks to your support, we have been able to mount a major campaign in Parliament, in the media and online – alongside your own efforts – to keep us on course for our goal: that this dangerous Bill never becomes law.

BUT MORE CHALLENGES LIE AHEAD

We cannot become complacent. Well-funded groups - Dignity in Dying, My Death My Decision and Humanists UK - have poured millions into pushing assisted suicide. They can see support is slipping and will fight hard to reverse that.

This is not the only fight we are facing in the House of Lords.

At the same time, the Antoniazzi abortion up to birth amendment, which passed in the House of Commons in June, is moving through the House of Lords as part of the Crime and Policing Bill.

Second Reading will take place in a matter of weeks. It will then go on to Committee and Report Stages, where we will be up against the UK’s largest abortion providers – BPAS and MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes) – who are expected to lobby for even more extreme changes to our abortion laws.

If the Antoniazzi amendment becomes law, it would no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason – including sex-selective purposes – at any point up to and during birth.

Thousands of vulnerable lives - at the beginning and the end of life - depend on what happens next. We must do everything in our power to stop these radical proposals.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Our campaign against the Leadbeater Bill in the House of Lords is working, but the work we have already done has significantly stretched our limited resources.

We are now stepping up our efforts against the assisted suicide Bill while launching a major push to stop the abortion up to birth amendment in the Lords. 

To fight effectively on both fronts, we aim to raise £183,750 by midnight this Sunday (5 October 2025).

Every donation, large or small, will help protect lives, and UK taxpayers can add 25p to every £1 through Gift Aid at no extra cost.

Will you donate now to help protect vulnerable lives from these two major threats?

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