American political activist Charlie Kirk clashed with student speakers at the Cambridge Union on Monday (19/05), controversially claiming “lockdowns were unnecessary,” “life begins at conception,” and the Civil Rights Act was a “mistake”.

Kirk rose to prominence as the founder of Turning Point USA, a right-wing student organisation aligned with Donald Trump. He regularly travels across the United States, debating students on campus and sharing clips with his 5.9 million Instagram followers.

He initially responded to questions from Union President Anoushka Kale, before heading to the dispatch box in the centre of the debating chamber to field pre-approved student questions in front of a packed audience of around 250-300.

Kirk claimed “conservatism is widely underrepresented on college campuses” and lamented that “everyone [in American universities] looks different but thinks the same”. He also claimed the Civil Rights Act 1964 was a “mistake,” “too broadly written […] played into disparate impact… [and is] now used to put men in female locker rooms”.

The conservative campaigner described Martin Luther King Jr as a “morally flawed man” whose “mythology” does not warrant the “reverence” he has received in the United States. He suggested that the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests happened “because a guy drug overdosed on the streets of Minneapolis”.

Kirk also claimed that the Covid pandemic “was never a greater threat than the seasonal flu”. He added: “We, the people in the West, deserve an apology” for the “youth suffering” during lockdowns. He also suggested that the January 6 riots “were not an insurrection”.

Clashes with students dominated the second half of the event. One medicine student received applause for rebutting Kirk’s anti-abortion position, while another student accused Kirk of “cherry-picking” Bible verses and questioned whether Jesus ever really commented on homosexuality. Kirk responded by stating that marriage should be “between one man and one woman,” as based on “scripture”.

Former Union President Sammy McDonald rounded off the questioning, in which he and Kirk vehemently challenged each other over Trump’s foreign policy. “You promised to put America first – haven’t you and your ilk sold America out?” McDonald asked. “No,” Kirk bluntly replied, defending Trump’s record: “He ended a war between nuclear powers in India and Pakistan [...] and secured our southern border from an invasion from foreign powers.”

Pressed on his pro-Israel views, Kirk asserted “there is a good guy and a bad guy,” prompting McDonald to interject: “That’s the morality of a child.” Kirk retorted: “A child has more wisdom than a student like yourself at Cambridge University.”

Although the event was scheduled to take only pre-approved questions, Kirk insisted on opening the floor. This led the Union’s full-time bursar, John Brown, to challenge him on Ukraine, prompting Kirk to declare that the US recognition of Crimea as part of Ukraine “was a mistake” and should be “given back” to Russia.

Asked who the “bad guy” is in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Kirk responded that “both are bad, one [Russia] is worse.” He claimed that Ukraine was “not a democracy” because President Zelensky has not held an election.

Last year, the right-wing American pundit Ben Shapiro also spoke at the Union in a similar format, when he stated that “barbarians are inside the gate [Cambridge]” about attitudes to Israel-Palestine.