England’s ‘free speech tsar’ named in announcement to one newspaper

Arif Ahmed, a Cambridge philosophy professor, will oversee a regime that could fine universities and student unions. Photograph: Eddie Mulholland/The Telegraph

A Cambridge philosophy professor is to become the government’s first “free speech tsar” for higher education in England, it has been revealed, in an announcement made initially only to one newspaper – a move that led critics to accuse ministers of paying “lip service” to free speech.

Arif Ahmed told the Times he hoped to use his role to stand up for “all views”, and that he did not seek to take part in any sort of culture war agenda.