Awkward Showdown! UK PM Keir Starmer And US VP JD Vance Cross Swords Over Free Speech Violations- wna24

As British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the United States to hold talks with President Donald Trump after US policy on the Ukraine war was upended by the newly-formed government, the debate around weakening of freedom of speech in the United Kingdom gained ground. In a meeting at the Oval Office on Thursday, the discussion between the longtime allies got uncomfortable when US Vice President JD Vance confronted Starmer over ‘infringements on free speech’ in the UK. 

Claiming that violations of the right to free speech affect the US tech companies and the American citizens, Vance stood by his month-old remark at the Munich Security Conference where he had pointed out how Europe’s greatest threat is the deterioration of its core values. In a stark warning, the US Vice President had called out censorship.

As per reports, Vance said, “I said what I said, which is that we do have, of course, a special relationship with our friends in the UK and also with some of our European allies, but we also know there have been infrongements on free speech that affect not just the British but American tech companies and American citizens. So that is something that we’ll talk about today at lunch.”

It took no time for the British Prime Minister to interject. While defending his country’s policies on freedom of speech, Keir Starmer asserted, “We’ve had free speech for a very long time, it will last a long time, and we are very proud of that”.

The British Prime Minister is on an official visit to the US to hold talks with President Donald Trump after US policy on the Ukraine war was upended by the newly-formed government. His visit was intended to make a personal appeal to the US President to continue supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia. The visit was to convince President Donald Trump to assure a security guarantee for Ukraine to stop Russia from invading again in case of a ceasefire.

The UK PM’s meeting with Trump followed French President Emmanuel Macron, who met the US President days back to ensure security guarantees to stop future aggression from Russia in Ukraine.

The UK Prime Minister also brought a letter from the British King Charles III that invites US President Donald Trump for a second state visit.

“It is my pleasure to bring from His Majesty the King a letter,” Keir Starmer said, sitting next to Trump during the meeting. “He asked me to bear this letter and bring it to you,” he added further. The US President accepted the invitation by calling King Charles III ‘a great, great gentleman’.