The battle for Christian freedom of expression on the streets of London is removed from over

It is nice news that a senior Metropolitan Police officer has praised the constable who defended a Christian street preacher’s freedom of speech in Whitechapel, east London. But pro-free speech campaigners could be naïve to think that the culture of the Met will change overnight. 

Met Assistant Commissioner (AC) Matt Twist was speaking on the London Assembly’s police and crime committee on February 25 after a viral video showed the feminine officer calmly telling a crowd of offended men who objected to Christian preaching in a “Muslim area” that, “In this country, we now have freedom of speech.”

According to the London Standard, Susan Hall, the leader of City Hall’s Conservative group, told AC Twist: “I particularly need to congratulate you in your female officer, who I feel it was in Whitechapel, actually reminded people what the meaning of free speech is. I actually would really like to commend her and I might like to see more law enforcement officials actually doing that. I hope you thank her on behalf of very lots of us.”

He replied: “Thank you for noting the nice work of PC {Police Constable} Moule who was in Whitechapel. It’s been reposted quite a few times on differing social media accounts, some more politicised than others. My view is it was a very good example of officers showing policing common sense without fear or favour and doing a very good job.”

But despite this commendation the unlucky reality is that the Met’s track record on upholding freedom of speech has been poor.

Among essentially the most egregious of cases was the arrest of Christian street preacher and pensioner, John Sherwood, in Uxbridge in April 2021. 

He had been preaching on Genesis 1:27 near Uxbridge tube station and said that the family unit as ordained by God consisted of a father and a mother, not two fathers or two moms. Some passers-by complained to the police that he was using homophobic hate speech.

The pastor, then 71, was arrested, held overnight at a police station and the next September was charged under Section 5 of the Public Order Act, which outlaws “threatening or abusive words or behaviour more likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress”.

Pastor Sherwood’s successful defence centred on the liberty “to carry opinions and to receive and impart information and concepts without interference by public authority” as set out in Article 10 of the 1998 Human Rights Act.

The nature of his arrest, which was captured on video, was condemned as “brutal” by campaign group Christian Concern.

The Met had been quick to defend the officers who arrested Pastor Sherwood, issuing a press release on the time that said: “At 13:35hrs on Friday, 23 April, officers on patrol were flagged down by a member of the general public who made them aware of a person allegedly making homophobic comments near Uxbridge Underground Station. A variety of other people also approached the officers with concerns concerning the man’s language.

“Officers spoke with the 71-year-old man and he was subsequently arrested on suspicion of an offence under Section 5 of the Public Order Act. He was taken to a west London police station and later released under investigation. A file has been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service [CPS] for review and consideration. The Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards [DPS] have since assessed the footage and located no indication of misconduct. The arrest is not going to be subject to a full DPS review.”

Sherwood was acquitted by Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court in 2022. 

The undeniable fact that the Met officers who arrested Pastor Sherwood were so wanting to clamp down on “homophobic comments” pointed to an anti-free speech culture within the Force. When an establishment becomes captured by neo-Marxist ideology, it goes out of its solution to prioritise groups with “protected characteristics” and forestall them from being offended by the exercise of free speech, particularly by Christians proclaiming Britain’s traditional faith and morality.

It stays to be seen whether PC Moule’s actions and AC Twist’s commendation will result in culture change within the Met. But one suspects that there are still powerful anti-free speech forces in the upper echelons of the Force, committed to neo-Marxist ideology.

Before AC Twist made his comments on the London Assembly, Toby Young, General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, wrote in The Telegraph: “I don’t know the officer’s name – the Metropolitan Police have declined to comment – but she deserves a medal. What she demonstrated, under considerable pressure, was a very good grasp of the law: that an individual preaching peacefully in a public place is exercising a right protected by Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998, and that the sentiments of bystanders, nevertheless loudly expressed, are irrelevant. Unfortunately, she is the exception somewhat than the rule.” 

The pro-free speech resistance in Britain, especially amongst orthodox Christians, could be unwise to be complacent. Without radical culture change within the Met, the battle for Christian freedom of expression on the streets of London is removed from over. 

Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.