Max Thompson

Work in Westminster | Campaigns Officer @SpeechUnion | All views my own.

[Max Thompson @MaxHThompson]

Yesterday, the Government effectively reintroduced Britain’s blasphemy laws, 18 years after Parliament abolished them.

Today, they push ahead with the biggest assault on English liberty by restricting our right to jury trials.

The scary thing is: it’s only Tuesday.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

THIS 👇👇👇👇

[GB News @GBNEWS]

Giving children puberty blockers is child abuse, why is the national lottery funding it? - Max Thompson

https://t.co/SmfBOYB8kM

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

It has been more than a week since Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner met Muslim community leaders around the Cabinet table in Downing Street to discuss “anti-Muslim hostility”, criticise political opponents for their language and reportedly pledge to appoint an “anti-Muslim hostility” tsar by the end of the week.

So far, no tsar has taken the crown.

Labour continues to throw red meat to placate extremists who threaten its electoral ambitions — and we are paying for it with our right to free speech.

Angela Rayner appointed a Working Group of five individuals, all with troubling links to Islamist organisations, to draft the definition. Who on earth could the new “anti-Muslim hostility” tsar possibly be?

Read more below from FSU Campaigns Officer @MaxHThompson 👇

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

Cruel and archaic conversion practices that try to force someone who is gay to be straight are, of course, abhorrent. That is why they are already illegal.

But, as is becoming increasingly common, the Labour government is obsessing over legislating for issues that are not actually a problem, and its Conversion Practices Bill is a prime example.

Under the draft Conversion Practices Bill, parents, therapists, and religious leaders could face up to five years behind bars for well-intentioned conversations with gender-confused children, or for sharing their faith's teachings on sex, gender, and marriage with their congregations.

Government figures show that Labour's Conversion Practices Bill could cost businesses and taxpayers up to £100 million over a decade. Businesses and taxpayers are already facing enough pressure in the current economic climate.

We cannot afford this bill.

Read more below 👇

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

Parents should not face up to five years in prison for refusing to accept that their child identifies as a cat.

A human child cannot be a cat. End of the matter.

We are not a serious country at the moment.

[Max Thompson @MaxHThompson]

@RhysBenjamin I think you fundamentally misunderstand what is happening here. Conversion practices are already outlawed. What this bans is the important conversations between parents and their children. No parent should be locked up for 5 years for doing their job. @KemiBadenoch is right.

[Helen Joyce @HJoyceGender]

Evening all. Just catching up on the socials now. It was an honour to be invited to speak to the joint committee. I'm exhausted but pleased to have been able to explain some of the very serious problems with the draft bill, and will be following up with the committee on several points

[Dennis Noel Kavanagh @Jebadoo2]

Naz Shah MP has an unerring eye for problems with legislation and she’s hit the nail on the head here

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

In Downing Street yesterday, Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner met Muslim community leaders around the Cabinet table.

The Prime Minister used the opportunity to take a cheap pot-shot at his political rivals, accusing them of using “unacceptable language” about Islam.

This isn’t the first time Labour politicians have accused their rivals of being “Islamophobic” or sought to police speech about Islam.

Another revelation from the meeting is that Angela Rayner is reportedly set to announce the appointment of an “anti-Muslim hostility” tsar this week.

Rayner appointed five people to a working group tasked with drafting the definition. All had troubling links to Islamist organisations, including the Muslim Council of Britain and MEND.

The Communities Department, which Rayner leads, also said it had deleted all responses to the working group’s consultation — responses that were vital to drafting the definition.

After pressure from Nick Timothy and the threat of legal action from the Free Speech Union, the ministry announced that it did have the responses after all, but would not show them to us.

This has only fuelled speculation that the Government allowed extremists to influence what is now Britain’s de facto Islamic blasphemy law.

Who on earth is she going to appoint as the new Islamophobia tsar?

Watch FSU Campaigns Officer @MaxHThompson 👇

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

Is that it? The budget was a Rachel Reeves tribute act.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

The Conversion Practices Bill is one of the most dangerous, illiberal and invasive pieces of legislation ever to come before MPs.

It will criminalise well-intentioned conversations between parents and gender-confused children, and between religious leaders and those seeking guidance on their faith’s teachings about sex, gender and marriage.

Parents who try to dissuade their children — at any age — from embarking on dangerous, irreversible and life-changing medical pathways could face five years in prison.

Unlike similar bills introduced in the past, this Bill contains no carve-outs to protect these vital conversations.

It is not the role of the state or ministers to dictate what parents can or cannot say to their children around the dinner table.

In a letter to the pre-legislative scrutiny committee, the Equalities Minister even had the audacity to claim that the Bill respects parental responsibility. It does not.

The committee will hear evidence from witnesses for the first time tomorrow, and has now opened its call for evidence.

The Free Speech Union is calling on the Prime Minister to drop this Bill. It is an assault on free speech and religious freedom.

Watch FSU Campaigns Officer @MaxHThompson and sign our petition below 👇

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

The anti-Muslim hostility definition has had a chilling effect on free speech.

Since its publication in March, it has been used to silence people who wish to criticise, debate or mock Islam — including private citizens, politicians and comedians.

It has made it harder to speak about issues such as Islamist extremism and the grooming gangs scandal.

Labour has revived Britain’s blasphemy laws for Islam alone, by the back door, 18 years after Parliament abolished them.

Angela Rayner appointed five people to the Working Group tasked with developing the definition. Each of the five members had troubling links to Islamist organisations, and the Government will not say who it consulted as part of its call for evidence.

So who on earth will it appoint as its “anti-Muslim hostility” tsar?

The Free Speech Union does not have high hopes.

Labour is chasing the Muslim vote after hampering support over recent years in Muslim communities. It is sacrificing our right to criticise religion on the altar of electoral ambition.

It is both sinister and shameless.

[Max Thompson @MaxHThompson]

@RoworthJack And you wonder why you didn’t get the job…🫠

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

Today, the Courts and Tribunals Bill came before peers in the House of Lords. It includes controversial plans to restrict our ancient right to trial by jury.

Andy Burnham has sacked David Lammy and dropped his plans for judge-only trials. Yet ministers still claim that removing the right to elect a jury is the most effective way to reduce the Crown Court backlog.

The Institute for Government says the reforms would save just 2% of Crown Court time — not the 20% ministers promised.

FSU research has also found that people charged with speech-related offences are almost twice as likely to be acquitted in a Crown Court with a jury than in a magistrates’ court without one.

Andy Burnham has been warned to expect a rebellion from Labour peers over these plans. And so he should.

Watch FSU Campaigns Officer @MaxHThompson 👇

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

Today marks 100 days since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister.

Keir Starmer led the most hostile government towards free speech in modern British history. Andy Burnham’s first 100 days suggest he could be even worse.

Different Prime Minister. Same hostility towards our fundamental right to free speech.

[Max Thompson @MaxHThompson]

https://t.co/4bBRWHBd4I

[Max Thompson @MaxHThompson]

Parents should not face up to five years in prison for having important conversations with their children.

What country are we even living in?

Sign @SpeechUnion’s petition calling on Burnham to drop this divisive Bill 👇

[Max Thompson @MaxHThompson]

Prevent should really be the last tool of the state to kowtow to activists in their bid to silence legitimate criticism and mockery of Islam.

This undermines public trust in the state to actually protect us.

It has been weaponised to silence Robert Jenrick and @JohnCleese.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

In Britain today, we have a de facto Islamic blasphemy law, ushered in by the Labour Government’s official “anti-Muslim hostility” definition.

It is being enforced by the police, the courts and now the Government’s own counter-terrorism programme, Prevent.

A programme tasked with stopping people becoming terrorists is being used by activists and extremists to silence legitimate criticism or mockery of Islam.

In recent weeks, comedian @JohnCleese was referred to Prevent and faced calls from Muslim activists to have his Birmingham show cancelled over comments he made about Islam on social media.

Reform UK Shadow Chancellor @RobertJenrick was reported to the Metropolitan Police and referred to Prevent after he called radical Islam the biggest threat to our country and called for the burqa to be banned on @danwootton’s show.

Robert isn’t wrong, is he? Radical Islam is a threat. MI5 has said that Islamist terrorism is the biggest threat to Britain.

Restore Britain leader @RupertLowe10 was reported to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for linking Muslims and Pakistanis to the rape gangs, despite Baroness Casey’s report concluding that Muslim men of Pakistani heritage were disproportionately involved in these heinous crimes.

Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary @NJ_Timothy was reported to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards by Labour MPs, branded “Islamophobic” and faced calls to resign from then Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer after criticising a mass Muslim prayer event in Trafalgar Square.

Reform UK was reported to the Equality and Human Rights Commission by 28 Labour MPs over its comments criticising Islam and the same mass Muslim prayer event.

It was the Islamist website 5Pillars that broke all these stories. A Home Office unit, RICU, has even labelled the group a “subject of Islamist extremist concern”.

These activists know what they are doing. The sinister weaponisation of Prevent will undermine public trust in the programme.

We must not let an Islamic blasphemy law take root in Britain.

Watch FSU Campaigns Officer @MaxHThompson 👇

[Guido Fawkes @GuidoFawkes]

Ofcom Admits Online Safety Act Has Failed to Protect Kids https://t.co/ff3SWzXCHS

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

The Labour Government promised to tread more lightly on our lives when it came to power in 2024.

That was a lie.

Look at what it has done.

🧵 A thread