The Irish comedy writer, whose successful career was derailed by his ‘anti-trans’ views, says he was treated like a ‘terrorist’ before being quizzed by police over ‘three tweets’ he posted in April.
The Met Police has confirmed the 57-year-old was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence at around 1pm yesterday ‘in relation to posts on X’. JK Rowling and Elon Musk are among several high-profile names to speak out after Linehan was arrested as soon as he stepped off an American Airlines flight from Arizona to London.
Tesla and X CEO Musk described Britain as a ‘police state’, while Rowling fumed: ‘What the f*** has the UK become? This is totalitarianism. Utterly deplorable.’
The gender-critical campaigner leapt to Linehan’s defence just weeks after he accused her of failing to back him after he was cancelled over his similar views.
Downing Street declined to comment on the arrest of comedian Graham Linehan, but said the Prime Minister and Home Secretary had been ‘clear’ about their ‘priorities for crime and policing’.
Asked about the arrest, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘That’s an operational matter for the police, but the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary have been clear about where their priorities for crime and policing are, and that’s tackling anti-social behaviour, shoplifting, street crime, as well as reducing serious violent crimes like knife crime and violence against women.’
Asked whether the Government agreed with author JK Rowling’s claim that the UK was now a ‘totalitarian’ state, the spokesman said: ‘No.’
Kemi Badenoch blasted the arrest as ‘thought policing’ under the Labour government, saying police should not be monitoring social media for ‘hurty words’.
The Conservative leader said: ‘Sending five officers to arrest a man for a tweet isn’t policing, it’s politics. Under Labour, we routinely see burglary, knife crime and assaults go unsolved, while resources are wasted on thought-policing.
‘It’s time this government told the police their job is to protect the public, not monitor social media for hurty words. The Conservatives would stop this nonsense on day 1 and make public safety the first duty of policing, instead of pandering to fringe ideologies.’
Piers Morgan accused Britain of ‘turning into North Korea’, Robert Jenrick blasted it as ‘a complete waste of police time’ and Nigel Farage said he will raise the arrest when he meets allies of Donald Trump to discuss free speech in Washington this week....<<<Read More>>>...
