Boris Johnson rallies in support of ‘cancelled’ author JK Rowling

The former UK Prime Minister, who lives just outside of Wallingford with his family, was paying tribute to Rod Liddle in a new article in The Spectator following the broadcaster’s death.

Mr Liddle died on Sunday, August 2, after a short illness and having spent his career in journalism and Mr Johnson has now paid tribute to him.

In his Spectator piece, the former Henley MP wrote: “Look at what has happened to free speech in the last couple of decades: J.K. Rowling all but cancelled just for saying a woman is a woman; the cops knocking on your door for non-crime hate incidents; students banning brilliant minds from their campuses; endless ridiculous ‘content warnings’; people fired just for a stray comment on the internet.

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“It’s mad, and yet more and more journalists have been invisibly capitulating. We have been toning it down, cutting that joke, sandpapering things to avoid getting into trouble.

“Not Rod Liddle. In the last few years he seemed to become more and more exceptional: still blazing away from his lonely but glorious redoubt.”

Ms Rowling, who wrote all the books in the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, has told of her growing “fury” after a leading human rights charity branded the sexual violence support centre she founded “anti-rights”.

The sector’s watchdog has confirmed it is investigating the matter.

The Harry Potter author said she is willing to support legal action on the issue, after a report published by Amnesty International UK listed Beira’s Place alongside several other organisations described as “gender critical” and classed as “anti-rights”.

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The list also named For Women Scotland, which won a Supreme Court case in April 2025, which saw judges at the UK’s highest court rule that the term “woman” in the Equality Act refers to a biological woman.

Beira’s Place was established in Edinburgh in 2022 by Rowling to provide women-only support for women who have experienced sexual violence.

Rowling posted on X on Friday: “Amnesty’s attack on Beira’s Place has left me burning with the kind of fury that mounts with every passing hour.”

She had previously stated that Amnesty had made a “massive error of judgment” if it believed “organisations it has attacked will be unwilling to go to court”.

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She added: “They underestimate both the solidarity that exists between the targeted organisations and my willingness to support legal action, not just on behalf of Beira’s Place, but for all women’s and LGB organisations falsely branded ‘anti-rights’.”

The Charity Commission said on Thursday that it was looking into the issue and confirmed on Friday that it had opened a case into the matter; however, it has not yet taken the step of opening a formal inquiry.

A Charity Commission spokesperson said: “We have opened a regulatory compliance case to further assess concerns raised with us about a briefing published by Amnesty International UK Charitable Trust.

“As part of this, we will be engaging with the charity’s trustees to gather more information.”

The commission, which regulates charities in England and Wales, also said the charity had referred itself to the watchdog by submitting a serious incident report.