Yvette Cooper has hit back at JD Vance’s claim that “free speech is in retreat” in the United Kingdom.

The US vice-president made the incendiary comments at the Munich Security Conference in February.

He said: “When I look at Europe today, it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners,” Mr Vance said.

“And 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.”

Vance was referring to the conviction of a man who prayed outside an abortion clinic despite a buffer zone being in place around the centre.

The vice-president added: “In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”

On Sky News this morning, Cooper was asked about the arrest of a couple in Hertfordshire who criticised their child’s school on email and in WhatsApp groups.

The Sunday Times also reported that than 20 police officers broke down the front door of a Quaker meeting house to arrest six women who had met to discuss climate change and Gaza.

Presenter Trevor Phillips: “This is an odd thing for Britain. Does it show that JD Vance has a point when he says that in Britain, free speech is in retreat?”

Cooper, the home secretary, said: “No, we have a long tradition, not just of free speech but of freedom of assembly, of a whole series of different freedoms that are really important.”

Phillips told her: “It’s a great long tradition but it seems to be under threat.”

Cooper said: “We also have a long tradition of independence for the police and the police need to operate without fear or favour.

“That other case that you referred to, the Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner and the chief constable, as I understand it, have also instigated a review into that case.

“I think the Police and Crime Commissioner has said the view is this was a breakdown of the relationship between the school and parents which ... they should look at different ways to deal with that rather than involving the police.”

She added: “If you had the home secretary trying to direct the police in different ways that really would cut across some of our important freedoms in this country, where the police need to operate independently from the home secretary.”