Police officers told a shopkeeper to take down a sign calling shoplifters “scumbags” because it could cause offence, sparking a free speech row.

Rob Davies put up a handwritten note in his shop after repeated thefts that read: “Due to scumbags shoplifting, please ask for assistance to open cabinets.”

But officers from North Wales Police attended his retro shop in Wrexham and told him to take down the sign as it could cause offence.

The free speech row comes after JD Vance, the US vice-president, told David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, that the West had become “too comfortable with censoring” and warned the UK not to go down the “very dark path” of censorship .

On Friday, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “This is madness. Causing offence is not criminal and is none of th

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