Nigel Farage demands an apology after Labour minister’s ‘disgusting’ claim that he is on the side of predators like JIMMY SAVILE in online safety law row
Nigel Farage furiously demanded an apology from a senior Labour minister today after being accused of taking the side of sick paedophiles like Jimmy Savile in a deepening row over an online safety law.
Peter Kyle also accused the Reform UK leader of being on the side of ‘extreme pornographers’ over the party’s pledge to scrap the Online Safety Act over claims it stifles free speech.
The Technology Secretary made the astonishing outburst as he defended the law, which came into effect last Friday and requires social media sites and search engines to take steps to prevent children accessing harmful content like pornography.
Critics including Mr Farage claim that it is being used to stifle free speech by blocking people from seeing some political statements online, especially those by right-wing figures.
But Mr Kyle told Sky News he had seen no evidence that the Online Safety Act ‘goes too far’.
He added: ‘I see that Nigel Farage is already saying that he’s going to overturn these laws. So you know, we have people out there who are extreme pornographers, peddling hate, peddling violence. Nigel Farage is on their side.
‘Make no mistake about it, if people like Jimmy Savile were alive today, he’d be perpetrating his crimes online. And Nigel Farage is saying that he’s on their side.’
Mr Farage labelled the comments ‘disgusting’ and demanded an apology. But Mr Kyle later doubled down on his remarks.
Peter Kyle also accused the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage of being on the side of ‘extreme pornographers’ over the party’s pledge to scrap the Online Safety Act.
Critics including Mr Farage claim that the law is being used to stifle free speech by blocking people from seeing some controversial political statements online
Former BBC television presenter and DJ Savile, who died aged 84 in 2011, is believed to have been one of Britain’s most prolific paedophiles, whose crimes went undiscovered or unchallenged for decades.
Appearing on GB News the minister said: ‘There is no definitive grey area about this.
‘Either you’re on the side of predators and paedophiles, as Nigel Farage is, because he wants them to have more access to our children online than you are with the Labour Party, where we are making sure we are holding the tech companies to account to prevent that kind of access, to keep children safer, and we can do so also at the time of also reinforcing freedom.’
In a later broadcast from Reform UK’s London headquarters, Mr Farage played back Peter Kyle’s comments, adding: ‘Well this is so absolutely disgusting that it’s almost beyond belief. Just how low can the Labour Government sink in its desperation?
‘Yes, of course they’re in trouble. They’re well behind us in the opinion polls. But frankly to say that I would do anything that would in any way aid and abet people like Jimmy Savile, it’s so below the belt it’s almost not true.’
Former BBC television presenter and DJ Savile, who died aged 84 in 2011, is believed to have been one of Britain’s most prolific paedophiles, whose crimes went undiscovered or unchallenged for decades.
Asked to clarify his comments, Mr Kyle said: ‘Nigel Farage is on the side of turning the clock back to the time when strange adults, strangers can get in touch via messaging apps with children.’
Reform UK would scrap the Online Safety Act as a ‘dystopian’ infringement of free speech, the party announced yesterday.
During the press conference, Mr Farage acknowledged that his party did not have ‘a perfect answer’ for what could replace the
Act, but said his party had ‘more access to some of the best tech brains, not just in the country but in the world’ and would ‘make a much better job of it’.
Former party chairman Zia Yusuf said the Act, intended to reduce online harm, did ‘absolutely nothing to protect children’ but worked to ‘suppress freedom of speech’ and ‘force social media companies to censor anti-government speech’.
Addressing a press conference at Reform’s headquarters in Westminster, Mr Yusuf said: ‘We will repeal this Act as one of the first things a Reform government does.’
The intervention came after it emerged that X blocked a powerful speech on grooming gangs by Tory minister Katie Lam in Parliament this year.
Meanwhile, footage of arrests during asylum seeker hotel protests was also blocked ‘due to local laws’, according to the social media platform.
Reform’s former chairman Zia Yusuf told GB News the attack was ‘the most disgusting thing I’ve heard a politician say about another politician in the political arena that I can remember in my lifetime’.
After a demonstration outside the Britannia Hotel in Leeds at the weekend, X users said the site blocked arrest footage.
They were shown the message: ‘Due to local laws, we are temporarily restricting access to this content until X estimates your age.’
Last week, the law changed to require websites to check users are over 18 before allowing them to access ‘harmful’ material such as pornography or suicide material.
Failing to comply with the new rules could incur fines of up to £18million or 10 per cent of a firm’s global turnover.
Asked about concerns the law has seen posts wrongly removed from social media, the Technology Secretary told Sky News: ‘I have not seen any evidence that the Bill goes too far at all.’
He added: ‘I will be monitoring the impact, but I have not so far seen anything that gives me concern for anyone about free speech grounds.
‘We have very strident protections for free speech in this country.
‘This is not about free speech. This is about hateful, violent, extreme, misogynistic and pornographic material finding its way into children’s feeds.’
