EDUCATION Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith has said it is “fundamental” that universities protect free speech on their campuses.

She told GB News: “Universities are the places where we learn to think critically, where we argue, where we hear things that we disagree with. It’s absolutely fundamental that universities continue to do that.

“It’s something that I benefited from at university and I’m absolutely certain that future students will benefit from it, and the staff that are teaching them as well.”

She denied that the Government dropping implementing the Free Speech Act was a negative move: “There is already in law a protection, a responsibility on universities to protect free speech.

“The problem with the legislation that was being proposed was it came from a place of that I agree with, of wanting to defend that freedom of speech for students, for visitors to universities, for academics, but what people told us, both universities and student unions and others, was, ‘look, it’s not going to work as it was intended’.

“If you’re not careful, you’re going to get swamped with complaints about free speech, when actually there are lots of other things that students and universities need to worry about as well.

“Just to be clear, as I was at the beginning, free speech in universities is fundamental. You don’t go to university only to hear things you agree with or that you feel comfortable with.

“You go there to be challenged and that has to remain in place, but we need to make sure that that’s, if you like, organised and delivered in a way that doesn’t have unintended consequences, which was the potential problem with the legislation.

“So, what we’ve done is we’ve said it was due to come in on the first of August, we’ve stopped that in order that we can think about whether or not this legislation or another way is the best way of safeguarding free speech.”

Asked how the Government can reduce the number of young people not in education, work, or training, she said: “The first thing to say is, university isn’t the only option open to you. It may be that you think, actually, I want to learn and work at the same time, so perhaps an apprenticeship is a better option for you.

“Last August, there were 33,000 apprenticeship options available on our one stop shop for apprenticeships, so perhaps take a look at that.

“But for students who’ve fallen behind and who now really don’t have anything in terms of employment or education, well, we need to do much more than has been done previously for them.

“That’s why we’re thinking about how we deliver our Youth Guarantee, so that all young people have the opportunity of studying or of work or an appropriate type of course that they could be doing or an apprenticeship.”