Sir Keir Starmer blasts Met Police after Father Ted creator Graham Linehan arrested over 'three anti-trans posts'

The Prime Minister told the force to focus on tackling serious crime after the Irish writer was arrested by five armed officers upon arriving at Heathrow Airport following a flight from Arizona.

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”.

In response, a Downing Street spokesperson said police should be concentrating on issues that “matter most to their communities”.

He said: "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 later shared the tweets that he was arrested for.

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.”

The third was a follow up to this tweet which said: “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.”

He said he was questioned and released with a bail condition that he must not go on X.

Mr Linehan also said that after being checked by a nurse while in custody, his blood pressure had reached 'stroke territory', and he was escorted to A&E where he spent eight hours under observation.

Describing his arrest on his blog, Linehan wrote: "The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting.

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"Not one, not two—five. They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three tweets.

"I was arrested at an airport like a terrorist, locked in a cell like a criminal, taken to hospital because the stress nearly killed me, and banned from speaking online—all because I made jokes that upset some psychotic crossdressers.

"To me, this proves one thing beyond doubt: the UK has become a country that is hostile to freedom of speech, hostile to women, and far too accommodating to the demands of violent, entitled, abusive men who have turned he police into their personal goon squad."

A spokesperson for the Met Police said: "On Monday, 1 September at 13:00hrs officers arrested a man at Heathrow Airport after he arrived on an inbound American Airlines flight.

"The man in his 50s was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence. This is in relation to posts on X.

"After being taken to police custody, officers became concerned for his health and he was taken to hospital.

"His condition is neither life-threatening nor life-changing. He has now been bailed pending further investigation."

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.