A cabinet minister has defended the technology secretary after he claimed Nigel Farage was “on the side” of predators such as Jimmy Savile because of his opposition to online safety laws.
Peter Kyle is under fire for his claim that Mr Farage’s opposition to the Online Safety Act, which aims to restrict children’s access to harmful content online, meant he was “on the side” of “extreme pornographers”.
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The Reform UK leader immediately hit back at Mr Kyle, branding his comments “disgusting” and “so below the belt”, while also demanding an apology.
But speaking to Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast, Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, said the Online Safety Act – which puts a duty on technology companies to protect children from harmful content – was “absolutely essential for protecting children and young people from sexual predators and from seeing totally inappropriate content online”.
Challenged on whether she agreed with Mr Kyle’s statement that Mr Farage was “on the side” of online predators like Savile, Ms Alexander replied: “Well, Nigel Farage is in effect saying that he is on their side because he’s saying he’s wanting to repeal the Online Safety Act.”
“In effect, what Nigel Farage is saying is that he’s totally happy for that to be a free for all on the internet,” she continued.
“That’s not the position of the Labour government. It’s not my position. It’s not the position of Keir Starmer or Peter Kyle. And that is the point that the technology secretary was rightly making yesterday.”
The Online Safety Act, which was passed in 2023, requires online platforms such as social media sites and search engines to take steps to prevent children accessing harmful content such as pornography or material that encourages suicide.
The rules of the act, which came into effect on 25 July, include introducing age verification for websites and ensuring algorithms do not work to…
