Speaker ban on Government critics ends

The United Kingdom Government has walked back on a controversial ruling that banned any speaker from events organised by the Civil Service if they had previously criticised Government policy.

The advice, introduced by then Minister for the Cabinet Office, Jacob Rees-Mogg in 2022, resulted in weapons expert Dan Kaszeta barred from addressing a conference organised by the Ministry of Defence due to criticisms he had made of the Government on Twitter.

Last year Kate Devlin, who specialises in artificial intelligence, was ‘disinvited’ from addressing a network of Civil Service officials after her criticism of the Government’s projected roll-out of AI was unearthed.

Before that, Priyamvada Gopal, an expert in post-colonial studies at the University of Cambridge, was stopped from speaking to Home Office officials about her view that the Department’s policies were linked with colonial history when an old social media post critical of then Home Secretary Priti Patel came to light.

Mr Kaszeta (pictured) pushed back at his ban in no uncertain terms, calling it an "outrage against free speech".

He said he was outraged that the Government would trawl through his Twitter account in which he had criticised Brexit and the Government's asylum policy – subjects which had nothing to do with the conference on chemical weapons demilitarisation where he had been named as a guest speaker.

This resulted in a statement from the current Minister for the Cabinet Office, Jeremy Quin who said the guidance had originally been developed to help Civil Servants avoid issuing speaking invitations to "individuals or organisations who have expressed or supported extremist views".

“The aim was to prevent events from taking place which might lead to the impartiality of the Civil Service being called into question or its reputation otherwise brought into disrepute," Mr Quin said.

“However, the guidance is not being used in the way it was originally intended and there is a risk of it being misinterpreted.

 "It is important we protect Civil Service impartiality, but not in a way that could result in adverse unintended consequences."

He said he had decided to withdraw the current guidance, review it and reissue it in later in the year in the hope it would then strike the right balance.

However, the change of heart came too late for the conference, which was held in April, to hear from Mr Kaszeta, an expert on nerve agents who spent 12 years advising the White House on the subject.