LGBTQ+ history prof attacks Govt for defending free speech

Oxford University’s newly appointed professor in ‘LGBT history’ has attacked the Government for better protecting free speech at universities.

Matt Cook, who will take up his role at Mansfield College in October, accused the Government of mobilising “fear in a way that can win you some votes”.

He made the claims in an interview with The Guardian only days after the UK’s new free speech tsar Arif Ahmed pledged to “defend free speech within the law for all views and approaches”.

‘Culture war’

Ahmed is responsible for investigating any infringements of the duties placed on universities to promote freedom of speech. Breaches could include no-platforming speakers, forcing staff and students to attend ‘ideological’ bias training, and disciplining academics for their social media activity.

But Cook denied that free speech was at risk in higher education, claiming: “It’s only a tiny fraction of cases where people actually don’t speak. So my sense is that it’s not a huge problem. I think the issue has been blown out of proportion.

“I also think there’s some political expediency in this. It’s a way of fanning a culture war. I don’t think we need additional protections for free speech in the university. Free speech is pretty alive and well.”

Shut down

Last month, trans activists attempted to silence the gender-critical views of Professor Kathleen Stock OBE at an Oxford Union event.

Intervening ahead of the talk at the historic debating society, Rishi Sunak said that a ‘vocal few’ had no right to shut down ‘free debate in a free society’.

Hundreds of activists attempted to derail the event, after Oxford University’s LGBTQ+ society urged the Oxford Union to ‘no-platform’ the senior academic, branding her “transphobic” for upholding the reality of biological sex.

Professor Stock was hounded out of her post at Sussex University in 2021, after facing online harassment including death threats for expressing her belief that men cannot become women.