JD Vance has taken aim at the UK and Europe over what he claimed was “backsliding” free speech and democracy.
The US vice president pulled no punches when addressing European leaders at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Friday.
“When I look at Europe today, it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners,” he said, during a speech that roamed across Europe targeting perceived infringes on free speech.
Speaking with unusual directness to some of the US’s closest allies, he added: “Perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.”
Mr Vance criticised the country for the conviction of 51-year-old Adam Smith-Connor, who was given a conditional discharge for breaching a safe zone around an abortion clinic in Bournemouth.
“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,” Mr Vance said.
He then went on to talk about “safe access zones” in Scotland – a 200m wide area (150m in England) outside abortion clinics to stop anti-abortion campaigners leafleting, holding vigils, or showing graphic images to people near the sites.
‘New sheriff in town’
“In Britain, and across Europe, free speech I fear is in retreat,” he said.
“In Washington, there is a new sheriff in town and under Donald Trump’s leadership we may disagree with your views but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree,” Mr Vance said to muted applause.
He then switched his focus to the car attack in Munich on Thursday, in which 36 people were injured.
Mr Vance wrongly described the suspect in that attack as an asylum seeker, when in reality he has lived in Munich since he arrived as an unaccompanied minor in 2016 and has a work permit.
Mr Vance also spoke about an annulled election in Romania, and issues in Sweden, Germany and Brussels.
‘Like it or not, Brexit won’
As he listed values he believes Europe is diverging away from the US over, he raised immigration.
“I can’t bring it up again without thinking about the terrible victims who had a beautiful winter day in Munich ruined,” he said.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with them and will remain with them. But why did this happen in the first place?”
He went on: “No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.
“But you know what they did vote for in England? They voted for Brexit and, agree or disagree, they voted for it.
“And more and more all over Europe, they’re voting for political leaders who promised to put an end to out-of-control migration.”