Academics must be able to sue universities

The minister leading the Government's war on woke campuses has warned vice-chancellors that "CANCELLED" academics must be able to sue universities.

 

The education minister, Claire Coutinho, said the Government will "make sure that academics and speakers who have their free speech rights wrongly infringed" will have the right to go to court for compensation.

 

Vice-chancellors and peers who have sought to scrap a planned tort in the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill that will give academics and students the power to sue universities for breaching their free speech rights.

 

The legislation follows several incidents in which academics have been "cancelled" over their opinions, including Prof Kathleen Stock - who resigned from Sussex University after what she described as a "witch-hunt" because of her views on transgender issues.

 

Ms Coutinho told a national broadsheet newspaper that the law was necessary to secure "cultural change" on campus, saying that in recent years there has been "a disturbing trend of forcing people into silence if they dare to go against what has become a progressive monoculture".

 

Consequently, she said, "Speaking invitations have been cancelled, visiting fellowships have been withdrawn, and academics have been subject to intimidation for taking part in debates on controversial issues."

 

"Even more worrying is the chilling creep of self-censorship. One in three academics in the UK report that they self-censor because they worry about the negative consequences that might come from speaking their mind. The tort provides a legal backstop for the duties in this legislation", she added.

 

Broadgate Legal

London Solicitors