The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has denied that the issue of free speech has featured in tariff negotiations with the US after reports a deal could be jeopardised by the outcome of a criminal case in Dorset.
The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), an office within the US Department of State, has met the anti-abortion campaigner Livia Tossici-Bolt, who was prosecuted for an alleged breach of a buffer zone outside a Bournemouth abortion clinic. The verdict is due on Friday following a trial at Poole magistrates court.
