9 July 2026
The Metropolitan Police has awarded Father Ted creator and Irish comedian Graham Linehan £25,000 and an unreserved apology after they arrested him last year as his plane touched down at Heathrow airport.
Last year, Graham Linehan — who now lives in Arizona, United States of America — was arrested by five armed police officers as he landed at Heathrow airport in one of the most shocking incidents we have seen in years.
What was Graham’s supposed crime? Three gender-critical posts on X. This is despite the fact that gender-critical beliefs are protected under the Equality Act 2010 and were reaffirmed by last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling, which settled that “sex” is defined by biology, not gender identity.
Mr Linehan was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence, detained and questioned for several hours before being rushed to hospital in the early hours of the morning after his blood pressure rose dangerously high.
When Graham was released, he was placed under draconian bail conditions, which initially included a ban on posting on X.
Graham’s case shocked us all and even caught the attention of the Trump administration, who have consistently called out the plight of freedom of speech in the UK. This sorry episode perfectly exemplified the free speech crisis in Britain today.
With the support of the Free Speech Union, Graham took legal action against the Met Police for wrongful arrest and breaches of his right to free speech.
In May this year, the Met offered a full and unreserved apology to Graham. Now, after accepting that there were “shortcomings in the investigation, the arrest and the imposition of bail conditions,” Scotland Yard has paid £25,000 to Mr Linehan in compensation, along with a second apology.
In a letter to Mr Linehan, a senior Met officer wrote: “Whilst there can be no doubt that all officers acted in good faith throughout and were seeking to do their best in the circumstances, the investigation identified shortcomings in both the investigation, arrest and imposition of bail conditions.
“We apologise to you for those shortcomings and for the distress and inconvenience which you suffered as a result.”
General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, Lord Young, said: “I’m beginning to lose count of the number of cases we’ve fought in which the police have arrested someone for a tweet, decided to take no further action and then had to pay them substantial compensation for wrongful arrest.
“At some point you’d think the penny would drop: police our streets, not our tweets.”
The Free Speech Union very much welcomes the Metropolitan Police’s decision to apologise to Mr Linehan and pay him compensation; however, Graham should never have been arrested in the first place.
All of the team at the Free Speech Union are proud to have stood by Graham and supported him throughout.
Read more in The Telegraph and watch Graham’s reaction here.
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