For our third satellite event for the Battle of Ideas 2025* we’ve invited former University of Leeds student Connie Shaw to discuss here cancellation from Leeds Student Radio
There’s been increasing claims recently we’re seeing the ‘end of woke’. However, the cases of those sacked, disciplined or cancelled for offending identitarian sensibilities seem to continue unabated – particularly within academia. One such case is former University of Leeds student Connie Shaw.
Connie was a Philosophy, Religion and Ethics student who graduated in 2025. She also worked on Leeds Student Radio, having been elected as daytime editor That was until she was suspended from LSR in September 2024 following complaints about gender-critical views being expressed in interviews she’d conducted – on her own podcast – including with a detransitioner and comedy writer Graham Linehan, and an article she’d written for Linehan’s Substack titled ‘Gender Madness at the University of Leeds’.
LSR denied her suspension was for her gender-critical views, but rather for bringing the reputation of LSR “into disrepute” – though Connie claims they couldn’t tell her how. She was also told that if she wanted to run again for the LSR committee, she’d have to take a mandatory training course about online conduct and provide a written apology to the wider student membership – though she says she didn’t know what she’d be apologising for.
Connie got help from the Free Speech Union to appeal the decision, but to no avail and that was the end of her brief student radio career. Now working for the FSU, Connie recently tweeted: “Now I’ve graduated, I have so much more to tell about my time at the University of Leeds…”.
