Lord Toby Young has declared the world has "woken up" to free speech under Sir Keir Starmer's Britain, following Nigel Farage's address to US Congress.
Speaking to GB News, the Director of the Free Speech Union stated that the "drip, drip, drip" of "overzealous policing" on free speech has become "absolutely insane".
Defending his trip to Washington to warn of the dangers of Labour's free speech laws, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told GB News: "This Prime Minister is so desperate now, he's so on the run that he resorted just to outright lies. Outright lies.
"The idea that I've suggested we should be punished with tariffs, I've never said anything of that kind whatsoever. What I'm saying is the opposite."
Lord Toby Young said people have 'woken up' to the 'absolutely insane' policing of free speech in Britain
|GB NEWS
Discussing Mr Farage's warning to US delegates, Lord Young told host Martin Daubney: "There's been a drip, drip, drip of these scandalous free speech cases and the Free Speech Union's been involved in defending quite a few of them.
"And Elon Musk has been drawing attention to it, JD Vance raised it at the white House with Sir Keir Starmer, he of course dismissed it, pooh poohed it, 'nothing to see here, we have a proud tradition of free speech in this country'."
Referencing the case of Graham Linehan, Lord Young added: "But I think finally, the arrest of Graham Linehan off a transatlantic flight, to be met at Heathrow by five armed police officers, dragged to a cell, interrogated and then detained for 16 hours I understand, only released when a nurse discovered his blood pressure was so high he had to immediately go to A&E.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Nigel Farage defiantly hit back at Keir Starmer's claims following his address to Congress, declaring him 'desperate' | GB NEWS"It's hard to ignore that. I think that story, that overreach, that example of overzealous policing of tweets, I think that's cut through."
Pointing out the worldwide messages he has received personally in light of Mr Linehan's case and Nigel Farage's move in the US, Lord Young revealed: "I've been getting calls from the press in Sweden, in Germany, in the United States ask me about this, it's really cut through.
"I think people have realised, they've woken up now to the fact that they weren't aware of it before, that you can get into all kinds of difficulty in Starmer's Britain just for things you've said on social media. People now realise we've got a problem in this country."
Asked by Martin if he has any faith that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will crack down on policing of free speech, Lord Young admitted: "Yvette Cooper has proved to be pretty intransigent on this issue.
Lord Young told GB News that police should 'stop wasting their time on hurty words'
|GB NEWS
"The Free Speech Union knows through submitting FOI requests that over 60 non-crime incidents are being recorded every day in England and Wales alone.
"You wonder if your house gets burgled, your car gets broken into, your child gets mugged on the way to school, why won't the police take any interest, they're far too busy policing our tweets to police our streets.
"The public hate it, but Yvette Cooper thought no, the police aren't recording enough, it's absolutely insane."
Calling on the police to focus less on "hurty words", Lord Young concluded: "One positive sign is that when Downing Street were asked about the arrest of Graham Linehan yesterday, even the Prime Minister finally put a bit of distance between himself and the police.
"He said, okay, it's an operational matter, but I think the police should be should have the same priorities of the communities they're policing, which is a coded way of saying they should stop wasting their time on hurty words and start investigating real crimes."