The IOPC has ordered Scotland Yard to reinvestigate Graham Linehan’s complaints over his arrest at Heathrow last September, ruling the Met’s own review was “not reasonable and proportionate.” The Father Ted creator was met at the airport by five armed officers over posts on X from six months earlier…
The Met already admitted the detention was unacceptable and apologised, though no officers were disciplined. Its review still found the arrest lawful, putting the blame on an overworked trainee detective and poor supervision. Blame the new boy…
The watchdog now says that if the force cannot justify the arrest, its handling of Article 10 (free expression) and the bail conditions, there may be enough evidence that Linehan was treated unfairly because of his gender-critical views – something the courts have ruled can count as a protected characteristic. He was reported by Lynsay Watson, a trans former police officer. Linehan also points out that the offence of inciting violence against trans people does not exist under the Public Order Act. Minor detail…
Linehan said:
“The only possible reason the Met acted in the extreme way they did was political bias… That the Met sought to cover this up is yet more evidence of a two-tier approach to the policing of this debate.”
Toby Young, whose Free Speech Union backed the challenge, said he hopes police will “take freedom-of-expression rights into consideration before arresting someone for a tweet.” Five armed officers for some posts on X…
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock was asked if Burnham will take Britain back into the EU:
“Yes, sure – his commitment is authentic. He really does understand from the grassroots up why restoring what I think of as normality in our continent is vital for every party economically, politically, culturally, in terms of security, and he’s able to articulate it in language that people can understand. So yeah, he is definitely”.