UK rejects US official's false claims of mass speech arrests
A senior US state department official's false claims about British policing signal a troubling alignment between Washington and Europe's far-right movements.
The UK government has dismissed claims by a senior US diplomat that British police make "thousands of speech arrests" per year. Sarah B Rogers, the US undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, made the assertions during a rightwing conference in London.
Speaking at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), Rogers centred her remarks on “Da Yookay”, a viral far-right meme. She listed a series of extreme and inaccurate scenarios, telling the audience: “In ‘Da Yookay’, you can be remanded without bail for an inflammatory tweet, while a psychopath who seizes a three-year-old and feeds him to crocodiles walks free.” She also falsely claimed that jury trials for speech crimes had been abolished.
Downing Street swiftly rejected her characterisation. A government spokesperson said the UK’s “world-renowned justice system operates without fear or favour to protect all our citizens”.
MPs from opposing parties also condemned the intervention. Max Wilkinson, the Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesperson, said: “Echoing bizarre online conspiracy theories about the UK is something we might expect from a hostile state rather than a Nato ally.”
Labour MP Stella Creasy suggested Rogers “should spend less time reading Twitter conspiracy theories about the UK and more time fixing their own problems”, citing US gun violence. Rogers’ appearance marks the most explicit criticism of the UK by a US official on British soil.
For investors and businesses, this overt friction between Washington and a major European capital introduces an unpredictable element into transatlantic economic and security alliances. Rogers’ role was created in 1999 specifically to strengthen relationships between the US and citizens of other nations, yet she has actively promoted far-right parties and attacked hate speech policies across European allies.
The setting for her remarks amplifies these concerns. ARC has become a significant force in shaping rightwing policy, drawing more than 4,000 delegates from 85 countries.
The London event featured Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. It also officially hosted delegates from major European far-right parties, including Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang, Spain’s Vox and the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom.
Rogers' rhetoric follows a pattern of US interference that has already drawn a rebuke from Keir Starmer. The prime minister suggested this month that the US was attempting to interfere in British democracy after Vice-President JD Vance blamed the murder of teenager Henry Nowak on mass immigration.
