Metropolitan Police Pays £25,000 Settlement to Graham Linehan After Arrest Over Posts Urging Violence

The Metropolitan Police reached a £25,000 settlement with comedian Graham Linehan and issued a second apology for his September 2025 arrest at Heathrow Airport, BBC News reported. Five armed officers detained Linehan on suspicion of inciting hatred under the Public Order Act as he returned from Arizona, where he lives.

Officials took him to hospital after his blood pressure raised concerns, though police said his condition was neither life-threatening nor life-changing.

Linehan was bailed pending further investigation. The incident was later recorded as a non-crime hate incident. In October 2025 the Metropolitan Police announced it would stop investigating such incidents to focus on criminal matters and dropped the probe into Linehan.

The force had already apologised to him in May. Linehan was arrested over three posts on his X account. One stated that a trans-identified male in a female-only space commits a violent act and advised calling the police or punching him.

The third said he hates misogynists and homophobes, with an expletive. ” The Free Speech Union supported Linehan’s civil claim. Its general secretary Lord Toby Young said police should focus on streets rather than tweets.

Two months before the settlement, Linehan had a separate conviction for damaging a transgender activist’s phone overturned.