Grammy-winning British musician Winston Marshall, now a podcast host, asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt Monday whether the Trump administration would be open to political asylum claims from his home country, given the U.K.’s crackdown on free speech.
“In Britain, we have had over a quarter of a million people issued non-crime hate incidents. As we speak, there are people in prison for quite literally reposting memes. We have extensive prison sentences for tweets, social media posts, and general free speech issues,” the founding member of folk rock group Mumford & Sons said.
“Would the Trump administration consider political asylum for British citizens in such a situation?” Marshall asked.
Leavitt described his question as a “very good one.”
“I have not heard that proposed to the president, nor have I spoken to him about that idea, but I certainly can talk to our national security team and see if it’s something the administration would entertain,” she told the podcast host.
Will the Trump administration consider political asylum for British Citizens prosecuted for speech? I asked @PressSec Karoline Leavitt and this was her response: pic.twitter.com/UDZcc6OB4A
— Winston Marshall (@MrWinMarshall) April 28, 2025
“To your first question about free speech in the United Kingdom, the vice president has been incredibly outspoken about this for good reason, and the president has spoken about this, as well, directly with your prime minister, when he was here for a visit to the White House,” Leavitt continued.
Should the U.S. be concerned about the political situation in the U.K.?
“So it remains a critical endeavor of ours to show the Brits in your country, which we love and admire, about the First Amendment and the importance of free speech in a sovereign nation,” she said.
Thanks to Winston Marshall, the whole world can now see what’s happening in the UK — free speech under attack.
Winston-asked Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt:
Will the Trump Administration consider offering political asylum to British citizens being prosecuted just for speaking… pic.twitter.com/WQcTuk0MLE— TheWakeninq2 (@wakeninq2) April 28, 2025
Marshall, a banjoist and guitarist, left the group Mumford & Sons in 2021 after a tweet he posted in support of conservative Andy Ngo’s book “Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy” brought considerable blowback against him and his band, according to Variety.
He wrote in a blog post at the time regarding the controversy, “Over the course of 24 hours [my tweet] was trending with tens of thousands of angry retweets and comments. I failed to foresee that my commenting on a book critical of the Far-Left could be interpreted as approval of the equally abhorrent Far-Right.”
“The only way forward for me is to leave the band. I hope in distancing myself from them I am able to speak my mind without them suffering the consequences,” Marshall concluded.
The music artist spoke about his decision to leave Mumford & Sons on Bill Maher’s podcast earlier this month.
Winston Marshall was in one of the biggest bands in the world. Then he tweeted about a book—and everything changed.
👀Watch the episode: https://t.co/LMs12fLO96
⁰✅ Subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss an episode@billmaher @MrWinMarshall pic.twitter.com/pIXkPv9VTP— Club Random with Bill Maher (@ClubRandom_) April 14, 2025
As Leavitt referenced, when Vice President J.D. Vance attended the Munich Security Conference in February, he singled out Great Britain, among other nations, for not allowing free speech.
“Perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs,” he said.
Vance offered the example of Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old Army veteran, who was arrested and later convicted of “the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes — not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone.”
When confronted by police regarding what he was praying about, Smith-Conor replied that he was praying for his unborn son, who died from an abortion 22 years ago, the BBC reported.
“Smith-Connor was handed a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay more than £9,000 costs,” according to the outlet.
JUST IN: Vice President JD Vance rips European leaders to their faces at the Munich security conference, calls them out for criminalizing free speech.
🔥🔥
Vance specifically called out the United Kingdom for being the worst of them all.
“I wish I could say that this was a… pic.twitter.com/1bj9TKxP4q
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 14, 2025
Vance further noted, “I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person. But no, this last October, just a few months ago, the Scottish government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so-called ‘safe access zones,’ warning them that even private prayer, within their own homes, may amount to breaking the law.”
“In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat,” he concluded.
Vance’s line and Marshall’s question regarding asylum called to mind words penned by Thomas Paine in his famous pamphlet “Common Sense” during the Revolutionary War.
“Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her,” he wrote. “Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.”
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