U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted Thursday that his country recognizes free speech, dismissing criticism of people being arrested for making political and religious statements on social media. 

He said that Britain “fiercely” protects freedom of speech.

“Free speech, it’s one of the founding values of the United Kingdom, and we protect it jealously and fiercely and always will,” Mr. Starmer said at a joint press conference with President Trump at Chequers Estate, the official country residence of the prime minister.

“We will bear down on any limits on free speech, but I draw a limit between free speech and the speech of those that want to peddle pedophilia and suicide on social media to children.”

He added, “So that’s the balance we strike. But we have had freedom of speech in this country for a very long time, and we will always protect it.”

Mr. Trump was later asked if it was a violation of free speech when ABC suspended late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s show because of comments he made about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

“Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk. And Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person,” Mr. Trump said. “He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago. So you know, you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”

The free speech in the U.K. and Europe has become a significant political issue for American conservatives.

Not that long ago, Mr. Trump berated Mr. Starmer over the free speech issue when the two held talks during the summer at the president’s golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland, according to The Independent.

More than 100,000 British protesters marched in London last week to protest the lack of free speech rights and illegal immigration in the U.K. The rally was led by right-wing activist Tommy Robinson.

U.K. authorities arrest more than 12,000 people a year for social media posts deemed to be speech crimes.

Earlier this month, comedy writer Graham Linehan was arrested by five armed police officers at Heathrow Airport upon returning from the U.S. His offense was an X post challenging a transgender woman being in a “female-only space.”

The arrest provoked intense debate in the U.K. and the U.S.

Mr. Linehan said the arrest made him “very, very angry.”

“For eight years now, I’ve been standing up for women’s rights and trying to get people’s attention about what’s happening to kids in gender clinics,” he told the BBC.

• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.