Kemi Badenoch has insisted free speech is ‘under threat’ after the extraordinary barbs launched by US Vice President JD Vance.

The Tory leader said the law was ‘overreaching’ in efforts to prevent people being ‘upset or offended’.

The comments follow JD Vance‘s claims that erosion of free speech in Europe was a bigger threat than Russia or China.

He singled out ‘very dear friends the United Kingdom’ over a ‘backslide in conscience rights’ – pointing to the case of an army veteran was convicted for silently praying in a ‘safe zone’ outside an abortion clinic. 

Ms Badenoch urged Britons to ‘fight’ for free speech, saying she supported those ‘questioning the status quo’.

‘Free speech is precious – and under threat. We must fight for it. It challenges dangerous orthodoxies and sparks change,’ she said.

Ms Badenoch – who also said she ‘hates cancel culture‘ – suggested the Government had stepped over a line between protecting the public and allowing free speech.

‘Rules to protect people from ‘perceived’ harm have overreached. Being upset or offended shouldn’t be the state’s concern,’ she said.

‘Silencing free speech harms democracy, culture and individual resilience. Without free speech, false ideas thrive unchallenged.’

The vice president’s comments were made to the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

Mr Vance claimed the erosion of free speech posed a greater threat to the UK than Russia or China.

He also criticised the UK over a legal case in which a former serviceman who silently prayed outside an abortion clinic was convicted of breaching the safe zone around the centre.

In a wider attack on what he suggested is a shift away from democratic values across Europe, Mr Vance claimed the ‘basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular’ are under threat.

He referred to the conviction of Adam Smith-Connor, 51, who had denied doing so but was found guilty last year of failing to comply with a public space protection order at the centre in Bournemouth in November 2022.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who stressed his own Christian views, told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: ‘He also said we can disagree on some things and still be close allies. I would disagree on that. I think the threat from Russia is real.’

Mr Reynolds said: ‘On the specific example he gave, let’s be clear, we don’t have blasphemy laws in the UK. That’s the right thing. I say that, as a Christian, no-one is arrested for what they are praying about.

‘The example he gave was about making sure people can access health care.’

Asked if Mr Vance was wrong, Mr Reynolds said: ‘I wouldn’t agree with his characterisation of that. But he did say we can disagree on some of this stuff and still be a key part of a relationship of allies and friends.’