More than 80 performers, including Hugh Bonneville, Nicola Coughlan, Matt Lucas and Luke Evans, have signed an open letter urging UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham to make voice a legally protected statutory right, similar to how a person's name or image is already covered. The "Save Our Voices Now" campaign warns that modern AI systems can convincingly clone a person's voice from just three seconds of audio, with no consent required.
Campaign researchers say 28% of UK adults report being targeted by voice-cloning scams, a figure echoed by a separate Starling Bank study. Co-founder Alice Sockett, an audiobook narrator, called unauthorized voice cloning "an existential threat to the wider voiceover industry." Bonneville, star of Downton Abbey and Paddington, submitted a handwritten statement backing the campaign, deliberately avoiding AI generation.
The letter points to Denmark, which already grants citizens legal ownership over their face, body and voice, with rights to removal and compensation if cloned without permission. The UK government's response so far has been to promise a consultation rather than draft legislation.