Labour says Farage’s plan to repeal Online Safety Act suggests he is siding with pornographers and paedophiles
Good morning. Yesterday Reform UK said that it would repeal the Online Safety Act, key parts of which have only just come into force. The party described it as “the greatest assault on freedom of speech in our lifetimes” and claimed that it won’t protect children because some people are using VPN services to bypass age cerification requirements. It was quite a bold policy announcement, because polls suggest voters strongly back measures to limit the spread of harmful content online, but it has gone down well with hardcore libertarians.
Peter Kyle, the science secretary, has been giving interviews this morning, and he has not held back. In an interview with Sky News, he claimed this meant that Nigel Farage was now in effect siding with pornographers and paedophiles like Jimmy Savile. He explained:
Children under 18 should not be viewing involuntarily dangerous, hateful, violent, misogynistic and pornographic material. People have to understand the wild west [lasted on the internet] for too long. That ended on my watch. It ended on the watch of this government. [The implementation of the Online Safety Act is] a big step forward. Believe me, anyone that thinks it’s a step back needs to come and answer now.
I see that Nigel Farage is already saying that he’s going to overturn these laws. So we have people out there who are extreme pornographers, peddling hate, peddling violence. Nigel Farage is on their side.
Make no mistake about it. If people like Jimmy Savile were alive today, he’d be perpetrating his crimes online. And Nigel Farage is saying that he’s on their side, not the side of children.
When Wilfred Frost, the presenter, challenged Kyle, and asked if it was he was seriously saying that Farage was aligned with the likes of Jimmy Savile, Kyle doubled down. He replied:
When it comes to online activity, we have seen unfettered access of adults to children via social media. When we put in the age verification, it stops strange adults getting in touch with children …
Nigel Farage is on the side of turning the clock back to the time when strange adults, strangers, can get in touch via messenging apps with children. We have now asked [social media companies] to age verify the age at which people can have access to online content so we can protect children from unwanted, dangerous content, and also those messaging services.
Nigel Farage wants to turn the clock right back. People are perpetrating more crime online, [presenting] more danger to children online, and Nigel Farage has said he wants to overturn every single one of the laws that keeps children safe in our country.
Frost described that as “an interesting extrapolation”.
We will hear more on this later. But the main news today will come from the cabinet meeting that Keir Starmer is chairing about Gaza. I will post more on that soon too.
And the Donald Trump news machine is still on UK soil until this afternoon, so we will hear from him as well.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Donald Trump opens his new golf course in Aberdeenshire. He also has a meeting with John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, who will be there for the opening, along with Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader. Swinney and Sarwar are expected to give interviews. Trump is due to leave Scotland for the US at about 4pm.
2pm: Keir Starmer chairs a rare recess cabinet meeting to discuss the starvation crisis in Gaza, and his proposals for a peace plan.
Also, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is visiting a tin mine in Cornwall. And David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is addressing a UN conference on a two-state solution for the Middle East in New York (late afternoon UK time).
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
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Key events
Donald Trump has met with the Scottish first minister John Swinney at his Aberdeenshire golf club, PA Media reports. PA says:
The president is opening a second course at his Menie Estate property, with a ceremony happening this morning.
It is understood Swinney met with Trump shortly before the ceremony.
Swinney has previously said he would push the president on an exemption to tariffs for Scotch whisky and raise the situation in Gaza, which also came up in the meeting between Trump and Keir Starmer on Monday.
Trump says UK government’s tax policy for North Sea oil ‘makes no sense’
Yesterday, when Donald Trump and Keir Starmer held their joint Q&A, they set out their alternative approaches to energy policy without either of them personalising it, or implying the alternative approach was bonkers.
This morning the US president has gone a bit further. He is in Aberdeenshire, and he has posted this on his Truth Social website.
North Sea Oil is a TREASURE CHEST for the United Kingdom. The taxes are so high, however, that it makes no sense. They have essentially told drillers and oil companies that, “we don’t want you.” Incentivize the drillers, FAST. A VAST FORTUNE TO BE MADE for the UK, and far lower energy costs for the people!
Trump does not mention Starmer and his government, but he is referring to their policies. The UK has always levied high taxes on North Sea oil, but Labour called for an windfall tax on energy companies when it was in opposition and, after Rishi Sunak’s government introduced one, Labour put it up.
Labour has also ruled out granting new licences for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea.
Kyle says he won’t ban VPNs, and plays down claims they are being widely used by children to bypass Online Safety Act
One of the main arguments used by Reform UK yesterday to criticise the Online Safety Act highlighted the surge in people signing up with VPN providers. People are using VPNs to bypass age verification restrictions on websites.
In his Sky News interview this morning, Peter Kyle accepted that VPN use was increasing and that people were using VPNs to get round the new rules in the Online Safety Act.
He said he did not know how many people have been downloading VPN apps. Age verification software has been downloaded 6.5m times in recent days, he said.
But he claimed “the vast majority of adults in this country” were playing by the rules. He said that he was not going to ban VPNs, but that he would be looking “very closely” at how they are being used.
And he argued that “very few children” were actively seeking harmful content online. The problem was that “harmful content comes and find them”, he said.
Some people are finding their way round [the legislation]. Very few children will be going actively out there searching for harmful content.
Now, if we can take a step forward, which is 60, 70, 80, maybe even 90% forward when it comes to actually stopping harmful content getting into kids feeds, I’ll bank it. That’s a good day at work.
And that 10% that’s remaining, or whatever that percentage is? We’ll go figuring it out as we move forward.
But don’t make any mistake about it. We’ve taken a big step forward when it comes to the experience children have online.
Peter Kyle, the science secretary, has responded to what Nigel Farage said on X about his Jimmy Savile broadside against Reform UK on Sky News. (See 8.44am.) Kyle posted his own message saying:
If you want to overturn the Online Safety Act you are on the side of predators. It is as simple as that.
Here is an explainer from Dan Milmo and Robert Booth about the Online Safety Act, and the age checks it imposes that came into force at the end of last week. This is the legislation that has triggered today’s row between Labour and Reform UK. (See 8.30am.)
Farage demands apology from Peter Kyle for his ‘disgusting’ comment about Reform UK siding with Jimmy Savile types
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has described Peter Kyle claim that he has in effect sided with the likes of Jimmy Savile as “disgusting” and he’s demanded an apology. He posted this on social media.
Peter Kyle’s comments on @SkyNews are disgusting. He should do the right thing and apologise.
Labour says Farage’s plan to repeal Online Safety Act suggests he is siding with pornographers and paedophiles
Good morning. Yesterday Reform UK said that it would repeal the Online Safety Act, key parts of which have only just come into force. The party described it as “the greatest assault on freedom of speech in our lifetimes” and claimed that it won’t protect children because some people are using VPN services to bypass age cerification requirements. It was quite a bold policy announcement, because polls suggest voters strongly back measures to limit the spread of harmful content online, but it has gone down well with hardcore libertarians.
Peter Kyle, the science secretary, has been giving interviews this morning, and he has not held back. In an interview with Sky News, he claimed this meant that Nigel Farage was now in effect siding with pornographers and paedophiles like Jimmy Savile. He explained:
Children under 18 should not be viewing involuntarily dangerous, hateful, violent, misogynistic and pornographic material. People have to understand the wild west [lasted on the internet] for too long. That ended on my watch. It ended on the watch of this government. [The implementation of the Online Safety Act is] a big step forward. Believe me, anyone that thinks it’s a step back needs to come and answer now.
I see that Nigel Farage is already saying that he’s going to overturn these laws. So we have people out there who are extreme pornographers, peddling hate, peddling violence. Nigel Farage is on their side.
Make no mistake about it. If people like Jimmy Savile were alive today, he’d be perpetrating his crimes online. And Nigel Farage is saying that he’s on their side, not the side of children.
When Wilfred Frost, the presenter, challenged Kyle, and asked if it was he was seriously saying that Farage was aligned with the likes of Jimmy Savile, Kyle doubled down. He replied:
When it comes to online activity, we have seen unfettered access of adults to children via social media. When we put in the age verification, it stops strange adults getting in touch with children …
Nigel Farage is on the side of turning the clock back to the time when strange adults, strangers, can get in touch via messenging apps with children. We have now asked [social media companies] to age verify the age at which people can have access to online content so we can protect children from unwanted, dangerous content, and also those messaging services.
Nigel Farage wants to turn the clock right back. People are perpetrating more crime online, [presenting] more danger to children online, and Nigel Farage has said he wants to overturn every single one of the laws that keeps children safe in our country.
Frost described that as “an interesting extrapolation”.
We will hear more on this later. But the main news today will come from the cabinet meeting that Keir Starmer is chairing about Gaza. I will post more on that soon too.
And the Donald Trump news machine is still on UK soil until this afternoon, so we will hear from him as well.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Donald Trump opens his new golf course in Aberdeenshire. He also has a meeting with John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, who will be there for the opening, along with Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader. Swinney and Sarwar are expected to give interviews. Trump is due to leave Scotland for the US at about 4pm.
2pm: Keir Starmer chairs a rare recess cabinet meeting to discuss the starvation crisis in Gaza, and his proposals for a peace plan.
Also, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is visiting a tin mine in Cornwall. And David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is addressing a UN conference on a two-state solution for the Middle East in New York (late afternoon UK time).
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.