Nato member leaders “got a little too comfortable with censoring” opinion, the US vice president has claimed as he took questions about freedom of speech in the UK.
JD Vance accused former president Joe Biden’s administration of leading the USA down “a very dark path”, which he said other countries should steer clear of.
The Republican met with Foreign Secretary David Lammy at Chevening House in Kent, where the pair went carp fishing.
Asked whether Mr Vance had a “message” for Mr Lammy on free speech, the vice president replied: “I’ve raised concerns about free speech in the United States of America.
“I think the entire collective West, the transatlantic relationship, our Nato allies, certainly the United States under the Biden administration, got a little too comfortable with censoring rather than engaging with a diverse array of opinions.
“So, that’s been my view.
“Obviously, I’ve raised some criticism and concerns about our friends on this side of the Atlantic, but the thing that I say to the people of England, or anybody else, to David, is many of the things that I worry most about were happening in the United States from 2020 to 2024.
“I just don’t want other countries to follow us down what I think is a very dark path under the Biden administration.”
Mr Vance has previously attacked what he described as a “backslide in conscience rights” in the UK.
At the Munich Security Conference in February, he referred to buffer zones near abortion clinics, where certain acts of protest are not allowed within defined boundaries.
“In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat,” the vice president said at the time.
In the White House earlier this year, Mr Vance said he knew of “infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British” but also US technology firms, “and, by extension, American citizens”.
Sir Keir Starmer, who was sat with him, responded by saying London “wouldn’t want to reach across US citizens”.
The Prime Minister said: “We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom and it will last for a very, very long time.”
During their exchange in Kent, Mr Lammy said he had “commonalities” with Mr Vance.
“The cut and thrust of politics is what excites me, and the truth is, I was blessed to go to Harvard, and I think the vice president went to a university not quite as good, Yale,” the Foreign Secretary said.
“So we enjoy that political debate and discussion particularly.
“But, you know, there are areas where there are actually joint concern, we both have a joint concern about outcomes for working people, that is the truth of it.”
Mr Lammy later added: “There are commonalities and there are differences and that is the joy of living in democracies like ours.”
Mr Vance visited the Foreign Secretary’s Chevening retreat while on holiday in the UK.
