J.D. Vance claims free speech and democracy are ‘in retreat’ in Britain and throughout Europe as US Vice-President delivers astonishing assault on America’s allies

J.D. Vance today claimed free speech is ‘in retreat’ in Britain and across Europe as the US Vice-President delivered an astonishing attack on America’s allies.

In an address at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Mr Vance warned Europe’s greatest threat came not from China or Russia but from within. 

He said free speech and democratic institutions were being eroded and accused European politicians of forcing people to shut down social media accounts.

The Vice-President also urged the continent’s leaders to do more to stem illegal immigration. 

In a specific attack on the UK, he raised the case of an ex-serviceman who prayed outside an abortion clinic and was convicted of breaching a safe zone around the centre.

‘Europe faces many challenges, but the crisis this continent faces right now, the crisis I believe we all face together, is one of our own making,’ Mr Vance told the conference.

‘If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor, for that matter, is there anything that you can do for the American people who elected me and elected President Trump.’

He accused EU officials of cancelling elections and asked whether ‘we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately higher standard’.

‘There is a new sheriff in town,’ Mr Vance said, referring to Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

‘We may disagree with your views but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square.’

Mr Vance cited the example of Adam Smith-Connor, who was arrested after he refused to leave a safe zone around an abortion clinic designed to protect vulnerable women.

He claimed it was an attack on the ‘basic liberties of religious Britons’ that ‘criminalises prayer’.

Mr Vance said: ‘A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an Army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 metres from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes, not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own.

‘After British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam replied simply it was on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years before.

‘Now, the officers were not moved – Adam was found guilty of (breaking) the Government’s new buffer zones law, which criminalises silent prayer and other actions that could influence a person’s decision within 200 metres of abortion facility. 

‘He was sentenced to pay thousands of pounds in legal costs to the prosecution… In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.’

Smith-Connor denied doing so but was found guilty last year of failing to comply with a public space protection order at the centre in Bournemouth in November 2022. 

In England, where the incident involving Smith-Connor took place, buffer zones apply within 150 metres of an abortion clinic, rather than 200 metres as the vice-president appeared to claim.

The case preceded the enforcement of the Public Order Act 2023, which introduced new rules on safe access zones outside all abortion clinics following a free vote in Parliament that received cross-party support.

A public spaces protection order had been introduced in October 2022 which banned activity including protests, harassment and vigils.

Proponents of safe access zones say women using a clinic can feel intimidated by the presence of someone standing in the area praying, even if they are not speaking, and that those who wish to pray can do so elsewhere.

Critics argue the rule undermines the right of freedom of religion and free speech.

Smith-Connor was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay more than £9,000 in court costs and victim surcharge after the legal proceedings brought by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.

Elsewhere in his Munich speech, Mr Vance accused European leaders of echoing communist language by acting against ‘disinformation’ and ‘misinformation.’ 

And he reiterated Mr Trump’s longstanding demand that European nations spend more on their own defence. 

‘While the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, and we also believe that it’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way,’ he said.

‘The biggest threat to Europe isn’t external – it’s internal. A retreat from its own fundamental values, values shared with the US.’

Mr Vance was expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky later on Friday, at the end of his five-day trip to Europe.

Their meeting was delayed because Secretary of State Marco Rubio‘s plane had to return to Washington after a mechanical problem en route to the conference.

Mr Trump stunned European capitals this week by announcing he had held a 90-minute call with Russian President Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine.

The US President has been accused of ‘appeasement’ of Mr Putin after his administration said it did not support Ukraine joining NATO as part of a settlement.

US defence secretary Pete Hesgeth also suggested Kyiv might have to cede territory to Russia after claiming a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was ‘unrealistic’.