JD Vance has described the UK as “our very dear friends” and praised Brexit but swiped at the attack on “basic liberties of religious Britons” during a security conference in Munich.
The Vice President was speaking 24 hours after an Afghan asylum seeker drove a car into a group of protesters, injuring 36, some seriously.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Vice President Vance said: “Brexit won. No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.
“And more and more all over Europe, they’re voting for political leaders who promised to put an end to out-of-control migration. Now, I happen to agree with a lot of these concerns, but you don’t have to agree with me.”
He continued: “I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.”
He cited the case of Adam Smith-Connor, who had denied doing so but was found guilty last year of failing to comply with a public space protection order at the centre in Bournemouth in November 2022.
Vance said: “After British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam replied simply it was on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years before.
“Now, the officers were not moved – Adam was found guilty of (breaking) the Government’s new buffer zones law, which criminalises silent prayer and other actions that could influence a person’s decision within 200 metres of abortion facility. He was sentenced to pay thousands of pounds in legal costs to the prosecution…
“In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”
