Britain’s technology minister has launched a bizarre attack on Nigel Farage of Reform UK by linking him to the late celebrity paedophile and sex offender Jimmy Savile.
As the latest phase of the Online Safety Act went live, it quickly became clear that its child protection-based objectives—against self-harm, pro-suicide, pro-anorexia, and hardcore ponography online—had mission-crept into something altogether more all-encompassing. Farage—mentioned throughout the same Trump press talk where the Act was heavily criticised—said that if elected his government would abolish it.
Faced with an overnight surge in adults adopting VPN technologies, Labour cabinet minister Peter Kyle, Technology/Science secretary, launched unprompted an attack on Farage, saying that the floated Reform policy would put Farage on the side of Jimmy Savile:
If Jimmy Savile were alive today he’d be perpetrating his crimes online, and Nigel Farage is saying he’s on their side.
Jimmy Savile (1926–2011), a high-profile part of the BBC’s talent roster now suspected of being one of the most prolific sex offenders in living memory.
Kyle’s analogy doesn’t hold up particularly well: Savile made a point of saying he didn’t own a computer, citing the arrest of fellow pop paedo Paul Francis Gadd—”Gary Glitter”—over the contents of a hard drive.
According to the inventive Kyle, a Reform government in 2029 could pave the way for predators like Savile to initiate unsolicited contact with children using messaging apps such as WhatsApp. Farage hit back, saying Kyle should “do the right thing and apologise” for his “disgusting” remarks.
Instead, Kyle replied
If you want to overturn the Online Safety Act you are on the side of predators. It is as simple as that.
The ‘optics’ of the situation are terrible. Not only has the Labour Party, nationally, ducked the issue of Pakistani-heritage paedophile rape gangs for decades, the Online Safety Act is now blocking the online testimony of their victims and survivors from being seen.
Under the previous Conservative government, directly accusing Keir Starmer of failing to prosecute Savile was considered off-limits—so much so that an advisor resigned after Boris Johnson did just that. In stark contrast, Peter Kyle has embraced inflammatory rhetoric, which Farage ally Gawain Towler described as “sewer sludge from Westminster.” Supporters of free speech may have to endure such mudslinging to overturn the Online Safety Act, but many believe the British public won’t fall for it.
