How Can It Be A Crime To Ask Someone To Speak English In England?

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2041650/Reform-tories-wisbech-cambridgeshire-hate-crime-row

Whether he asked it or not is not the point. I'm
interested in the assertion that it can possibly be a crime to ask someone to speak the native tongue.

[Old_Geezer]

I don't see how it, in itself, can be a crime. It probably comes under some hurty words law with the assumption that anyone taking offence by being asked is clearly a victim of a deliberate attempt to upset them.

[THECORBYLOON]

What if the person were non-white  and speaking his or her first language, English but with a strong or unfamiliar accent?

 

[douglas9401]

Read the article.

[Quenched]

By English I presume you mean posh like the Queens speech?

The only barrier that sometimes occurs is people's broad accent. 

 

I really struggle to understand some Scottish accents, so maybe the person took offence when asked to speak proper English.