Graham Linehan has said he was arrested at Heathrow Airport yesterday over posts he made on X.
London’s Metropolitan Police did not confirm the Father Ted creator’s name but said that a man was arrested yesterday “at Heathrow airport after he arrived on an inbound American Airlines flight,” which would chime with the timing of Linehan’s claim.
In a Substack article titled I just got arrested – again, Linehan said: “The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting. Not one, not two—five. They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three tweets.”
One of the tweets, according to Linehan, 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.”
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Linehan has created multiple British comedies but in recent years has been best known for his vehemently anti-trans rhetoric. On Thursday, he is due in court on a charge of harassing a trans woman and damaging her phone, which he denies. X boss Elon Musk backed Linehan over the latest arrest, describing the UK on his own platform as a “police state” in response to Linehan’s arrest.
During his arrest and questioning, Linehan said he fell ill and was taken to hospital after a nurse checked his blood pressure and found it to be more than 200. “The stress of being arrested for jokes was literally threatening my life,” he wrote.
The Met Police stressed that the man arrested was in “neither life-threatening nor life-changing” condition and he was bailed afterwards “pending further investigation.”
“The arrest was made by officers from the MPS Aviation Unit. It is routine for officers policing airports to carry firearms. These were not drawn or used at any point during the arrest,” it added, likely in response to Linehan’s claim about “five armed police officers.”