by Downing Street said efforts by police in Belgium to break up a conservative conference featuring Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman on Tuesday were “extremely disturbing”.
Mr Farage was on stage at the Conservative National Conference in Brussels when officers entered the venue to serve a court order demanding it be closed with “immediate effect”.
Legal papers, seen by The Telegraph, suggested that speeches at the event could cause public disorder, be homophobic or offend minorities.
Conference organizers were forced to relocate to the venue on Monday night after a conference hall and hotel canceled their bookings following claims of “political pressure” from the local left-wing mayor.
A spokesperson from No. 10: “These reports are obviously very disturbing. The Prime Minister is a strong advocate and supporter of free speech, which he believes should be fundamental to any democracy.
“Talking more broadly on the principle of these events, it is very clear that canceling events or preventing attendance and speakers without a platform harms freedom of expression and democracy. It’s very clear that free debate and exchange of views is vital, even if you don’t agree.”
Mrs Braverman, the former home secretary, who also spoke at the meeting, criticized what she called “Brussels-appointed police” on the basis of free speech.
After her speech, she told reporters: “The thought police ordered by the mayor of Brussels are so apt to try to undermine and deny free speech and free debate.
“I remember the words of Mrs. Thatcher, and I am going to miss her, but the more ridiculous and far-fetched and extremist efforts they are to silence us, the more I will be quoted. Because it shows that they have lost their political argument.”
Miriam Cates, Tory MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, had to be smuggled into the venue to give her speech on child protection. She was disguised in a tartan headscarf and was ushered in through a service entrance.
She said: “It’s unbelievable. Many of the speakers are elected politicians in their own countries, and people can disagree with them, but they are legally elected. It is unusual that an attempt was made to shut them down like this. It is the opposite of liberalism.”
Writing for the Telegraph, Mr Farage said: “I am not at all surprised by the great response in Brussels to this conference. I have been personally banned from restaurants, pubs and coffee bars for the past few years in this city.
“But today, the Brussels elite have demonstrated their culture on a world stage. In fact, it is much more serious than that.
“Abolish the culture of saying: ‘I don’t want to hear your opinion.’ What happened today is an updated form of Soviet communism. He says that no other opinion is allowed, that anyone who holds it is, by definition, mad, evil, and dangerous. It is an approach that ultimately fails, and will always fail.”
Mr Farage, honorary president of Reform UK, told the audience that if they wanted to silence him the police would have to drag him off the stage.
A police cordon was erected to prevent people from entering the center, but officers did not enter the conference room to remove speakers or delegates as a court battle ensued.
The event was allowed to continue as the organizers protested the order to close it down from Emir Kir, a local mayor in Brussels. “It cannot be denied that this event could lead to violent reactions [and] significant disturbance of public order,” the order said.
Mr Kir, a long-time mayor of the city’s Saint-Josse district, was kicked out of the Socialist Party in Brussels in 2020 after meeting with politicians from Turkey’s far-right.
The event was originally scheduled to take place in the Concert Noble ballroom, but on Friday Yoram Hazony, chairman of the conference, said the venue informed its staff that they had to pull the event amid “pressure political” from Philippe Close, mayor of the Socialist Party in Brussels.
Club Claridge, owned by Lassaad Ben Yaghlane, a Belgian-Tunisian businessman, stepped in to host it. As he defied orders to shut down, officers ordered his car towed away and catering businesses were prevented from delivering supplies.
“They’re not usually the people I share the same values with,” Mr. Ben Yaghlaine said of the conference attendees. “The difference is that I understand they need stability and maintenance [of] traditional values, but we live in a world that is currently developing and requires more openness and acceptance of other people’s values.”
Mr Ben Yghlane, who is more used to hosting weddings, bar mitzvahs and parties, has been at the venue since 2013. Mr Farage said: “He is incredibly brave.”
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Mr Farage, who gave a speech on his history of fighting the ruling class in Brussels, said there was “no threat to public order”. Eric Zemmour, the French firebrand, gave his speech on the pavement outside after being refused entry by the police.
Mr Hazony, chairman of the conference, said: “We work hard to ensure that the fringe elements, political extremists, do not visit our conferences.” A spokesman also insisted that the event was “extremely peaceful”.
Frank Furedi, from the Brussels MCC think tank, said that “the attempt to close the event was an entirely political act … political decisions are dismissed as technical ones.”
On Tuesday, the organizers were working to find a new venue for the second day of the conference, when Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, will speak. It was doubtful that the legal challenge to overturn the court order would succeed in time for the event to take place.
In her speech, Mrs Braverman claimed that Rishi Sunak did not have the “political will” to withdraw Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights.
She said the Prime Minister’s promise to prevent “foreign courts” from stopping Britain sending asylum seekers to Rwanda was “unrealistic”, calling leaving “right and necessary” and also an “advisable” option politically” to the Government.
