In response to the “no platforming” of Priyamvada Gopal by the Home Office, the Free Speech Union has invited her to join and offered to defend her.

Gopal’s invitation to speak to Home Office civil servants was withdrawn after Guido revealed the left-wing professor had been invited to speak, despite her extreme positions on race and cultural issues. We also highlighted that she had also said the Home Secretary Priti Patel:

“is also a reminder that many Asians in British Africa had ferociously anti-black attitudes and were used by colonial administrations to keep black populations in their place. An attitude she brings to government.”

The Free Speech Union this morning has welcomed Gopal’s acknowledgment that the free speech crisis is real and not “manufactured”. Going on to say if she joins the union they will be happy to consider her case:

Incidentally, Guido never advocated Gopal’s speaker invitation be withdrawn, merely that other speakers should be invited to balance and challenge her loony left-wing claims. Priti perhaps had a different view…

The Home Office has cancelled a woke Black History Month lecture at the department by hard-left Cambridge academic Priyamvada Gopal, after Guido revealed the event yesterday and pointed out Gopal had previously made damning comments against Priti Patel herself:

“Priti Patel is also a reminder that many Asians in British Africa had ferociously anti-black attitudes and were used by colonial administrations to keep black populations in their place. An attitude she brings to government.”

A Home Office source tells Guido that Gopal was “cancelled for her having racist views” – and they had no idea how she got invited in the first place. A look at the Eventbrite listing shows references to the loony left lecturer have been removed…

While Boris opened Black History Month saying he’s “proud to lead a country celebrated for its dynamism and diversity”, he’d no doubt be uncomfortable sitting through some of the lectures his Whitehall mandarins are putting on for civil servants to elevate their woke credentials this month. Guido’s found evidence of numerous events with activists who have made their views on the PM and other ministers well known, giving a platform to hostile tirades against their own government under the nose of Simon Case and the PM. And they thought Whitehall’s work-from-home obstinance was off-message…

• The Home Office has hosted a talk by Afua Hirsch, who previously condemned the PM’s “litany of racist statements”, saying “his oafish stupidity is part of Boris Johnson’s electoral brand”.
• The new Department of Levelling Up is to be lectured to by David Olusoga, who believes “the north is not going to be levelled up, it’s going to be offered flags and xenophobia instead”, and who claims “Boris Johnson is utterly careless of everyone but himself”.
• The Home Office has invited Priyamvada Gopal to talk, an even more questionable move given she’s said that “Priti Patel is also a reminder that many Asians in British Africa had ferociously anti-black attitudes and were used by colonial administrations to keep black populations in their place. An attitude she brings to government.” She also likened the chair of the PM’s Race and Equalities Disparities Commission to Joseph Goebbels.
• The Home Office permanent secretary will also be appearing alongside John Amaechi, who last year sparked a culture war battle after making a children’s video with the BBC about White Privilege, a concept the Commons’ Education Committee concluded was holding back working-class communities.

Guido suggests Simon Case either steps in to balance these voices, or mandates woke permanent secretaries to invite more mainstream or even conservative BAME speakers to give their perspective. Katharine Birbalsingh, Tony Sewell, Trevor Phillips and Mercy Muroki would all be excellent places to start…