Labour MP Jonathan Hinder has urged the left to “reclaim” free speech.

Speaking at a Labour fringe event organised by More in Common and Liberty, Hinder said many working-class voters did not feel able to raise concerns about immigration for fear of being labelled racist. He referred to a story Keir Starmer, the former prime minister, told in his 2025 conference speech about a voter who began a sentence with “I’m not racist, but”.

Hinder, the chair of the Blue Labour group, said the vast majority of people in the UK were “not at all racist”, and that many who cared about immigration “do not give a jot whether you are black, brown, or white.”

He added: “I think this is a really important issue for the left. It’s a fundamental principle of socialism that we want to hold the powerful to account. So it should be as cherished by us as anyone.”

Hinder told the fringe meeting: “If you don’t believe in free speech for your opponents, you don’t believe in free speech. Let’s reclaim it for the left as socialists.”

The Labour MP also accused both Reform UK and the Green Party of trying to stifle debate. He pointed to Reform UK’s decision in July 2026 to report Green Party leader Zack Polanski to the police, after he shared an Instagram post. The post, which contained several images, included a photo of a man wearing a top featuring the name “Nigel” alongside an image of a guillotine.

Hinder, a former police officer, said the UK has “somewhat lost sight of the distinction between being a bit of an a***hole and being a criminal, and we need to get that back.”

Drawing on his policing background, he argued that Britain’s public order legislation is “not fit for purpose”.

He said: “We need to refresh those for the modern era, for the online age in particular.”

Hinder said the law sets “quite a low threshold” for police intervention, pointing to cases ranging from “an old granny holding a Palestine action sign, or it’s someone sending a spicy tweet and getting arrested at Heathrow for it.”

Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, said she agreed with much of Hinder’s stance, while emphasising that free speech has “always been a qualified right”.

“We’ve always said you have the right to say what you want”, Creasy said. “You don’t have the right to be unaccountable for the consequences.”

She said “power imbalances” between groups meant free speech had “never been a reality” for some, and that progressives should recognise the difference between “somebody trying to have a conversation and somebody trying to use words to shut somebody else down”.

Creasy further argued that people could be harassed “with the most benign words ever. You can shut somebody down just by saying something repeatedly.”

She added: “If we want to stand up for free speech, we have to be able to stand up for the concept of being able to say stop…

“You have a right to offend somebody, sure, but you don’t have a right to keep going once they say, actually, look, ‘I just don’t want to be part of this.’”