Tell the education secretary to protect students and academics from hate.
Just weeks after Professor Jason Arday was hounded to his death, Reform UK’s branch in Oxford has invited the racist academic who led the campaign, Nathan Cofnas, to speak at Oriel College.
The intention is to bait Black people – to remind them there has been no accountability for the death of Professor Arday and, by extension, that their own careers and lives are at risk.
It’s not possible to assert with certainity that the law obliges Oriel to let Cofnas speak. What can be said with certainity is that pro-hate speech legislation enacted by the Tories, and embraced by Labour minister Bridget Phillipson, made it easier for racists, misogynists and other bigots, funded by far-right billionaires, to use universities to spread their message of hate. Phillipson embraced that legislation, we believe, because of her opposition to trans rights. But it also opened the door to people who want to stoke fear and spread division.
We can’t allow hate to flourish in our universities.
Take action now. Write to her successor as education secretary, Lucy Powell, and tell her this legislation must now be repealed.