Yvette Cooper has been accused by the Free Speech Union of suggesting everyone arrested in connection with the recent disorder is guilty. The Telegraph has more.
In a letter to Ms. Cooper, the Free Speech Union raised concerns that the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, risked prejudicing the trials of those yet to appear in court.
The message was posted by the official Home Office account on Aug 14 after two weeks of unrest in British towns and cities.
It contained a graphic saying there had been more than 1,000 arrests underneath the caption: “These criminals will face the full force of the law.”
Toby Young, the general secretary of the Free Speech Union, warned the tweet risked breaching the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
In the letter he said Ms. Cooper was “ultimately responsible” for the content of the Home Office’s account and should order the deletion of the post.
He wrote: “We are concerned that this post referred to all the people who have been arrested in connection with the recent public disorder as ‘criminals’, including those who have not been charged, or who have been charged but have pleaded not guilty and have not yet been tried.
“For example, one of our members, the 55-year-old woman who was arrested last week for wrongly identifying the attacker in Southport as an asylum seeker on X, has not been charged or made any admission of guilt.
“If she is charged, and if she pleads not guilty, we fear that there may be a risk that her trial is prejudiced because some of the jurors in her case may be one of the 2.3 million people who have seen the X post.”
Worth reading in full.
You can read the Free Speech Union‘s letter to Ms. Cooper here.
Stop Press: If you want to write to your MP to express your concern about this Government’s assault on free speech, you can do so using this template letter courtesy of the Free Speech Union. Sending it only takes a couple of minutes.
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