Police shouldn’t be involved in 'toxic culture wars’: Met chief weighs into free speech row after Graham Linehan arrest

Mr Rowley said the police had been "left between a rock and a hard place by successive governments," calling for a change in the law and guidance for officers.

It comes after the Irish writer was arrested by five armed officers upon arriving at Heathrow Airport following a flight from Arizona, for sharing anti-trans posts on X.

Mr Linehan, 57, said he was arrested immediately after stepping off the plane and escorted to a private area where he was told he was “under arrest for three tweets”.

Amid criticism that the arrest was an 'over-reach' and stifled free speech, the Met police chief has defended his officers while calling for more clarity on similar cases.

In a statement, he said the decision to arrest Linehan was made 'within existing legislation' as it related to inciting violence against a protected group, he 'understands' the debate on "balancing free speech with the risks of inciting violence in the real world."

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"Most reasonable people would agree that genuine threats of physical violence against an identified person or group should be acted upon by officers. Such actions can and do have serious and violent real-world implications," he wrote.

"But when it comes to lesser cases, where there is ambiguity in terms of intent and harm, policing has been left between a rock and a hard place by successive governments who have given officers no choice but to record such incidents as crimes when they’re reported."

But he said the force "shouldn't be policing toxic culture wars debates," and that officers have been left in an "impossible position".

"I have offered to provide suggestions to the Home Office on where the law and policy should be clarified," he said.

Sir Mark called for "greater clarity and common sense" so the force could "limit the resources we dedicate to tackling online statements to those cases creating real threats in the real world."

Earlier on Wednesday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting told LBC the government wants to see police “policing streets, not policing tweets”.

Mr Streeting told the force to focus on neighbourhoods rather than social media posts, as the row between No10 and police rumbles on.

The Health Secretary told LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that he couldn’t comment on an ongoing case, but that he did want to ‘address the principle’ of people being arrested over social media posts.

“When it comes to the challenges facing this country at the moment, particularly on law and order and keeping neighbourhoods safe, the priority is neighbourhood policing,” he said.

“We want to see our police policing streets, not policing tweets".

On Wednesday, Mr Streeting opened the door to changing the law in response to the row surrounding Linehan’s arrest.

The Father Ted creator shared the tweets after his arrest. One read: “If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls.”

Another was a picture of a trans rally with the caption: “A photo you can smell,” and the third was a follow up to this tweet which said: “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.”

There has been significant debate around the extent to which social media posts should be regulated or policed in the UK, with powerful Americans including Elon Musk and JD Vance weighing in on the issue.

The world’s richest man said the purpose of the Online Safety Act, which came into force earlier this year, was the “suppression of the people”, while the US Vice President has warned Britain is going down a “very dark path” of losing free speech.

Speaking to Nick Ferrari, Mr Streeting said the legislation on free speech could be changed if the government ‘doesn’t have the balance right’.

"The police are enforcing the laws that Parliament has passed, so if the balance isn't right and we think they should be doing other things or prioritising other things, that is also on legislators to think about,” he said.

“One of the things the Home Secretary is looking at, because she wants to prioritise things like antisocial behaviour, drug dealing, violence against women and girls, is looking at the whole range of things that we asked the police over years to do.

“Have we got the balance right? Are we asking the police to focus on the right things? And I do think that there are obviously issues that are raised out of this case and others like it".

Prime Minister Keir Starmer also hit out at police on Tuesday, emphasising that they should be focusing on tackling serious crime.

A Downing Street spokesperson said police should be concentrating on issues that “matter most to their communities”.

He added: "This is an operational matter for the police, but the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary have been clear about what their priorities on crime and policing are: that’s tackling antisocial behaviour, shoplifting and street crime as well as reducing serious violent crime such as knife crime and violence against women."

Mr Linehan is currently facing a trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday this week over two separate charges – one of harassing Sophia Brooks, a transgender activist, on social media and another of damaging Brooks’s mobile phone in October.

He denied the charges at a hearing on May 12.

Mr Linehan co-wrote Father Ted episodes for its whole run from 1995 to 1998 and also worked on comedy series such as The IT Crowd and Black Books.