Yvette Cooper took issue with JD Vance.

Yvette Cooper has hit back at JD Vance’s claim that “free speech is in retreat” in the United Kingdom.

The US vice-president made the incendiary comments at the Munich Security Conference in February.

He said: “When I look at Europe today, it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners,” Mr Vance said.

“And perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.”

Vance was referring to the conviction of a man who prayed outside an abortion clinic despite a buffer zone being in place around the centre.

The vice-president added: “In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”

On Sky News this morning, Cooper was asked about the arrest of a couple in Hertfordshire who criticised their child’s school on email and in WhatsApp groups.

The Sunday Times

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