Andy Burnham has sparked a free-speech row with his plans for a ‘Ministry of Truth’ unit at the heart of Government.
Fears were mounting on Wednesday that Labour would use a new disinformation unit, dubbed a ‘Ministry of Truth’ by critics, to ‘silence dissent’ amongst Britons criticising the Government.
This comes after the PM revealed plans for a ‘National Centre for Information Defence’ to tackle online disinformation at a United Nations (UN) gathering on Tuesday.
In a speech to the UN General Assembly, Mr Burnham claimed Brexit had been exploited by Vladimir Putin to sow division in Britain.
And he said the UK had faced an ‘industrial scale assault by hostile actors’ aimed at undermining the country since leaving the EU.
Downing Street said the new centre would detect and disrupt future ‘hostile state information attacks’.
But Mr Burnham’s plans were met with instant criticism on Wednesday amid fears the Government would use the unit to crack down on free speech in Britain.
Responding to No 10’s plans, Reform leader Nigel Farage said: ‘Instead of lowering your energy bills or cutting your taxes, Burnham has announced a National Centre for Information Defence.
Andy Burnham has sparked a free-speech row with his plans for a ‘Ministry of Truth’ unit at the heart of Government
In a speech to the UN General Assembly, Mr Burnham claimed Brexit had been exploited by Vladimir Putin to sow division in Britain
‘This is a Labour Ministry of Truth targeted directly at Reform. They know they can’t win by fair means, so they’re trying to destroy us by foul means.’
‘Ministry of Truth’ is a reference to a department in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 which changes facts to suit its own agenda.
Silkie Carlo, the director of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch claimed that similar Government units have led to free speech being curtailed in Britain.
In a statement, she said: ‘We have already seen the mantle of countering ‘disinformation’ being abused by our Government in attempts to malign and silence dissent.’
She added Big Brother Watch has ‘repeatedly found that units including the Counter Disinformation Unit, Rapid Response Unit, RICU and the MoD’s 77th Brigade have been involved in recording, flagging and triggering the censorship of Britons’ lawful speech’.
‘MPs across parties, journalists, human rights campaigners and members of the public have all been flagged in so-called ‘disinformation’ reports for lawful, truthful speech critical of the Government.
‘We must not see a repeat of these abuses of power.’
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting was forced on Wednesday to confirm the new unit would not be used for ‘policing domestic political dissent’ as concerns arose.
And he insisted the centre was being established because the threats are ‘of a different order of magnitude’ than previously.
It follows the PM in recent days suggesting that unnamed ‘outside actors’ had manipulated opinion during the 2016 referendum.
In his UN speech, he said the situation had become worse since Brexit – and named Russia as the main culprit.
He added: ‘In recent years we have seen an industrial-scale assault by hostile actors on the information environment in the UK and many of our allies. Russian agencies have used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people’s fears.
‘I know this is a shared challenge. So we are going to use our experience in the UK – and the fact that we have already been through this shock – to help other countries.’
No 10 said the new disinformation unit would operate alongside intelligence agencies, the police and social media companies and focus on ‘improving local community cohesion and preventing a distorted and untrue narrative about Britain’.
It emerged this week the Government is also considering forcing social media companies to prioritise pre-approved trusted news sources on their platforms.
This could see companies such as Meta and Alphabet forced to make content from British media groups such as the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 easier to find in users’ feeds and searches.
