I rise in support of the Government and am pleased that they have decided to reinstate the clause that includes the tort. I was taken aback by the shadow Minister’s suggestion that such a provision was otiose. He suggested that there are much larger issues that the House should be debating. I think that this is where we see a real difference between our parties. The fact is that we think that few things are more important than the quality of cultural and academic debate in our country, and the context in which young people are educated and brought up. But a spirit of oppressive cultural conformity has taken root across the institutions of the United Kingdom and, worst of all, it has taken root in our universities, where freedom of speech should be protected.
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We have had cultural conformity previously in this country. In the 19th century, John Stuart Mill warned of the “social tyranny”, as he called it, of an oppressive conservative culture. Of course, he was worrying about an exaggerated and oppressive conformity to the traditional institutions and values of the country. The conformity that we have now is very different. It has decided that not just the conformity but the traditional institutions themselves are oppressive. We have decided that the status quo itself needs to be dismantled altogether. Marx said
“all that is sacred is profaned”
and:
“All that is solid melts into air”—
even the solid reality of biological sex. We need counter-revolutionary voices; voices of people who believe in this country and its values, who are proud of our history, who believe in biology, and in the rights and obligations of parents, and other common-sense ideas. They need the freedom to speak without fear of abuse, of being cancelled, silenced or losing their job.
Just as in the Victorian era it was not the direct laws that created the checks on freedom, the social tyranny—it was the cultural atmosphere of the time that was the problem—we have a culture of anticipatory compliance, of self-censorship, and the statistics have been quoted already. Some 50% of conservative-minded academics admit to censoring themselves out of fear for their job.
I therefore applaud the Bill and the decision to introduce this liability risk for universities. I have been perplexed by the points made by Opposition Members: the suggestion, for example, that for some reason universities will decide to close down clubs and societies because of this Bill. However, the opposite is the case: if universities close down a society or a club, they would fall foul of the Bill. This is the best possible protection for the freedom of speech that we need on our campuses, so I am pleased that we are doing this.
I am particularly impressed by the Minister. She has resisted the academic establishment in the universities. She has resisted our establishment in the other place, and no doubt in her own Department, to stand up for the principle of free speech and the importance of the tort. She is brave, principled and aligned with the values and interests of the people of this country, not with the
progressive elite. She has talked about the progressive monoculture that we need to avoid. I suggest that a progressive monoculture is much worse than a conservative monoculture—both are bad, but a progressive monoculture is properly totalitarian.
That is why I wish to finish by appealing to those on the Opposition Front Bench. If ever, in some distant day, they take power in this country, they should not undo this legislation, and this tort in particular, because they need to look behind them. Those on the Labour Front Bench are the hosts to a new totalitarian idea, which is well represented tonight. The hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Matt Western) is a decent liberal. He may think that he is just defending liberalism here, just protecting diversity, and that there is no danger from the ideas behind him, but this rapacious spirit, this intolerant totalitarian idea, will come for him, too. Those on the Labour Front Bench should support the Bill, with the tort included, to ensure and defend free speech, and ultimately to save themselves.