Of course they do. Plenty of people on the left say that the very notion of free speech is "problematic" and must be criticized. Which directly implies that they find it less problematic to criminalize speech, as the UK does.
Of cause it is hard to get the balance right and what UK is doing does not look right. But UK does have the problem of ultra-right movements that want to establish a fascist regime.
Yes, that's in fact a very old idea - that the "soap box" must defend itself with the "ballot box", and the ballot box with the "cartridge box". But what's happening now is a lot worse: free speech is being destroyed for the sake of not "causing offense". Which amounts to giving express legitimacy to intolerance, and saying that it must always win over tolerance.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Popper#The_Open_Society_a...
I think you refer to the quotes about the paradoxes of freedom and tolerance.
Is that correct?
Because if I recall your (now flagged) message correctly, you were claiming that the left was in favor of putting people in jail for their opinions. While "we're going to make a demonstration to show how much we disagree with someone" can definitely be an annoyance, it's really, really, really far from your initial claim.
At this point, I remain unconvinced.