The New York Times reports:

For nearly three hours, Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain’s once-fringe populist Reform U.K. Party, commanded an audience in Congress on Sept. 3 as he testified against his own country’s free-speech rules.

The presence of Mr. Farage, a longtime Trump ally, as the Republicans’ star witness in Washington was not merely a symbol of his growing political clout or the power of conservative populism.

Rather, it was the result of a discreet, monthslong campaign by one of America’s most influential conservative Christian groups, famous for being an architect of the effort that helped overturn Roe v. Wade and end the constitutional right to an abortion.

The group, Alliance Defending Freedom, has taken its playbook to Britain and has rapidly established itself as a power broker between the country’s rising populist movement and President Trump’s Washington. They are catalyzing Reform U.K., Britain’s fastest growing political party that is seeking to upend the Conservative Party with an agenda centered on anti-establishment and anti-immigration sentiments. The A.D.F. is guiding its leadership even further to the right, on a conservative Christian agenda similar to the one that is sweeping through the United States.

The A.D.F.’s British arm orchestrated Mr. Farage’s appearance in Congress, reaching out to ask if he would like to give evidence on censorship and passing on his interest to the House Judiciary Committee, which formally invited him, according to both a Reform U.K. and a Republican official. An A.D.F. lawyer testified alongside Mr. Farage in the hearing, together building a case against what they saw as growing government censorship in Europe. A.D.F. officials have also quietly arranged briefings in Britain with visiting congressional leaders. They brokered a secret meeting between Mr. Farage and top State Department officials in London. And in private briefings, they have supplied the Trump administration with attack lines that cast the British government as hostile to free speech.

In Britain it is highly unusual for advocacy groups to hold influence the way they do in the United States.

In a statement, Paul Sapper, a spokesman for A.D.F. International — the global counterpart to its U.S. operation — said that the group is “non-politically partisan” and has “engaged with every major political party in the U.K.” A Labour Party spokesperson, however, said there was no record of the A.D.F. having any contact with the party.

Britain is, in many ways, an unlikely place for an American anti-abortion organization to build a base and leverage influence. Abortion rights hold overwhelming cross-partisan support and, unlike in the United States, religion plays little role in national politics.

But the A.D.F. believes that British politicians, and the public, can be swayed and wants abortion rights to be rolled back, its lawyers said in an interview. More broadly, the group wants to empower conservative Christianity in Europe, and it sees Britain as a key bridgehead.

The A.D.F. has begun its effort with a topic it believes will resonate with British voters: free speech. The group is spearheading an alliance of organizations that argues that Britain’s center-left government is too restrictive on political and religious speech.

“What’s emerging in the U.K. is a free-speech alliance of disparate groups who are all, for various reasons, shocked that we’ve ended up in the position we are here now,” Lorcán Price, a lawyer for the A.D.F. who has been at the center of the group’s efforts in Britain, said in an interview.

The question of censorship has rocketed to the top of the political agenda in Britain this year. Groups on the right have raised alarms about the arrests of people who posted inflammatory anti-migrant messages online during riots last summer, while those on the left have criticized the arrests of hundreds of peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters under terrorism laws. In the United States, the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk propelled the Trump administration to promise to punish people they accuse of hateful speech.

For the A.D.F., freedom of speech is intrinsically tied to religious freedom. Its task force of lawyers in Britain has challenged the prosecutions of Christians who were arrested for praying silently outside abortion clinics, and taken up the case of a student midwife who was suspended after making anti-abortion comments on social media. Abortion “buffer zones” — protected areas around clinics designed to prevent harassment — have been cited by conservative groups like the A.D.F. to declare a free speech crisis in Britain.

Despite its growing presence in Britain, the A.D.F. has remained relatively obscure, unlike in America, where it has grown powerful through high-profile Supreme Court cases that have carved out more space for Christianity in public life. The group has represented clients in the United States who are opposed to abortion, gay and transgender rights and contraception coverage in health care. Its allies include Vice President JD Vance and Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, who is a former A.D.F. lawyer. [Continue reading…]