The president-elect’s celebration of Charlie Kirk’s murder shames the Oxford Union

The ghoulish celebrations of Charlie Kirk’s shooting are sadly not confined to the most deranged corners of the internet. Even those you might expect to uphold free speech and promote open debate have been among those gleefully cheering this act of murderous intolerance. Most shocking of all was the reaction from the incoming president of the Oxford Union, the world’s most prestigious debating society, which has offered a forum for free speech for over 200 years.

‘Charlie Kirk got shot, let’s fucking go’, posted Oxford Union president-elect George Abaraonye on WhatsApp on Wednesday, when footage of conservative activist Kirk’s final moments spread around the world. ‘Charlie Kirk got shot lool’, he also posted on Instagram, in case he hadn’t made his view clear: that Kirk’s shooting was something to cheer, or at the very least find amusing.

For the leader of a university debating society to celebrate the slaying of a man for his beliefs, while he debated them on a university campus no less, would be horrifying enough. More chilling still is that Abaraonye had personally met and debated Kirk in the Oxford Union, only a few months before his untimely death.

The backlash to Abaraonye’s remarks has been understandably furious. He has since offered a half-hearted non-apology, although this has only inflamed matters further. He said he ‘reacted impulsively’ to the news of the shooting, and that he swiftly deleted his comments after Kirk was pronounced dead. Then, he doubled down: ‘At the same time, my reaction was shaped by the context of Mr Kirk’s own rhetoric – words that often dismissed or mocked the suffering of others.’ Kirk’s right-wing views, in other words, justified the gleeful response to his shooting.

So what is to be done about Abaraonye? It is clearly perverse for someone who holds free speech in such contempt to lead the world’s most prestigious debating society. It is as preposterous as letting Tommy Robinson run the Liberal Democrats, or putting Abu Hamza in charge of Prevent.

Indeed, any president of the Oxford Union should be expected to tolerate far more controversial guests than a conservative like Charlie Kirk. Past speakers have included everyone from Nick Griffin and Marine Le Pen to Malcolm X and Colonel Gaddafi. Would conservative speakers be prepared to show up to an Abaraonye-run Oxford Union, knowing the president might be okay with them being shot? If Abaraonye had any sense, he would recognise this is not the role for him. He would take note of the damage he has done to the Oxford Union’s reputation and offer his resignation.

Yet, at the same time, the summary cancellation of Abaraonye should be resisted, too. There is a growing clamour not only to have him removed as the head of a debating society, despite being democratically elected, but also expelled from his university course. This would be an extraordinary overreach and a blatant attack on the right of the Oxford Union membership to set its own rules and choose its own officials. (In any case, the Oxford Union’s leadership says it does not have the power to unilaterally dismiss Abaraonye anyway.) Plus, he has every right to express repulsive views without being hounded off of campus entirely.

If Abaraonye’s fate is to be decided by anyone, it should be by the Oxford Union’s membership. According to the society’s constitution, 150 members can sign a petition to demand a confidence vote. This is surely the best, most democratic way forward. Just as political parties and organisations can oust their leaders, should they act disgracefully, so it is with the Oxford Union. Let’s see. Meanwhile, as horrendous as his comments were, talk of him being kicked off his course should be resisted by anyone who opposes campus cancel culture.

Whatever else happens next, it’s important to remember that George Abaraonye is not an isolated case. Free speech is now held in such contempt that its sworn enemies can climb the ranks of the world’s foremost debating society. It will take far more than a change at the top of the Oxford Union to stop the rot.

Fraser Myers is deputy editor at spiked and host of the spiked podcast. Follow him on X: @FraserMyers.