Government ‘fanning culture war’ over free speech, says UK’s first LGBTQ+ history professor

Issue blown out of proportion, says Matt Cook, after appointment of ‘free speech tsar’ for higher education

Oxford University’s new professor of LGBTQ+ history has accused the government of “fanning a culture war” over freedom of speech, insisting it is alive and well in higher education.

Matt Cook, who was this week named as the first Jonathan Cooper chair of the history of sexualities, a newly created post at Mansfield College, was speaking only days after the appointment of the government’s first “free speech tsar” for higher education.