In February, Vance used his first international speech since taking office to berate close US allies over immigration and speech laws.
During his speech at the Munich Security Conference, Vance cited the conviction of a British army veteran for silently praying outside an abortion clinic as proof that “basic liberties of religious Britons” were under threat.
Sir Nick said he “cannot stand the rank hypocrisy” of senior right-wing American politicians “flying first class or by private jet over to the United Kingdom and declaring that somehow there is excessive censorship in the UK and then flying back to the US to basically intimidate and bully and cow their own opponents”.
He said the behaviour of many in the Trump administration “is flagrantly contrary to American principles of free expression”.
Asked if he included JD Vance among these figures, Sir Nick said: “That includes them all.
“I think it is an outrageous example of double standards.”
Yet Sir Nick warns the UK is “over-censorious” online, citing police making 30 arrests, external a day for offensive posts.
He warns crackdowns on online “speech that is offensive, unpleasant, vile” but not illegal open the door to political abuse.
“Part of the definitions of living in a free society is that you can say things that are offensive and other people violently disagree with,” Sir Nick said.
Over-censoring offensive but legal speech empowered figures like Nigel Farage who “will get more of a hearing the more imprecise these boundaries are”.
At the same time, he said age verification rules in the Online Safety Act aimed at preventing young people from encountering harmful content “did not go far enough”.