The battle over free speech rights in the U.K. reached a fever pitch Monday when acclaimed Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan was arrested upon landing at London’s Heathrow Airport because of… social media posts.
Linehan, who is the co-creator of the popular 1990s sitcom Father Ted and shows like The IT Crowd, recounted on Substack that he was detained by five armed police officers as he disembarked a plane from Arizona. His crime? Criticizing trans activists and ideology on X.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Greg Lukianoff, author of The War on Words, to discuss Linehan’s arrest and why it should concern Americans as well.
The Arrest
According to Linehan, the ordeal actually began when he was still in the U.S. A gate agent told him he did not have a seat assignment for his flight and would need to be issued a new ticket. “At the time, I thought it was just the sort of innocent snafu that makes air travel such a joy,” he wrote. “But in hindsight, it was clear I’d been flagged. Someone, somewhere, probably wearing unconvincing make-up and his sister/wife’s/mum’s underwear, had made a phone call.”
He pieced it all together once he arrived in the U.K. “The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting. Not one, not two — five,” he recalled. “They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three tweets.”
The tweets in question were posted over the course of two days in April. One from April 19 showed a picture of a trans rights rally that he captioned “a photo you can smell.” In a follow-up later that day, he posted, “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F-ck em.” The next day, Linehan posted: “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.”
At the Heathrow police station, Linehan said his belt, bag, and electronic devices were confiscated and he was “shown into a small green-tiled cell with a bunk, a silver toilet in the corner and a message from Crimestoppers on the ceiling next to a concave mirror that was presumably there to make you reflect on your life choices.”
He was eventually interviewed by an officer about his offending posts before being taken to the hospital due to concerns about his blood pressure. He said he composed his Substack post from the emergency room “after spending about eight hours under observation.”
‘A Legal Gag Order’
London’s Metropolitan Police have not disclosed the identity of the suspect involved in the Heathrow incident, but a spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital that a man in his fifties was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence “in relation to posts on X.”
Linehan said the only restriction on his bail was that he was banned from using X. “I looked at the single bail condition: I am not to go on Twitter. That’s it,” he wrote. “No threats, no speeches about the seriousness of my crimes – just a legal gag order designed to shut me up while I’m in the U.K., and a demand I face a further interview in October.”
In the meantime, the comedian was returning to the U.K. for a separate legal matter in which he is accused of harassing a transgender woman and damaging her phone. He denies the charge and will appear in a London court on Thursday.
Attacks on Free Speech
Freedom of speech is technically protected in the U.K. under Britain’s Human Rights Act, but it has limits that include speech “inciting violence” and “hate speech” directed at people on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, and religion. And critics say sweeping new laws now punish everything from online jokes to private prayer.
It is something Vice President J.D. Vance spoke to when he dropped a ‘truth bomb’ on foreign leaders at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, saying the biggest threat to Europe is censorship and a lack of free speech.
Lukianoff, who serves as the president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), said there is a silver lining to Linehan’s very public legal battle. “It is good that they arrested him because it is making people aware of how insane the law has gotten in the U.K. and, honestly, the rest of the so-called ‘free world,'” he said. “America, at this point, is truly alone in protecting free speech as passionately as we do, and thank goodness we have the First Amendment.”
In his view, the situation in the European Union, the U.K., Canada, and Australia is “getting more and more desperate” as arrests rise. “Just to put this in perspective, about 2,000 people were arrested per year in the first Red Scare, which was 1919 and 1920,” Lukianoff noted. “Approximately 12,000 people have been arrested this year in the U.K. alone, and they are half our population at the time of the Red Scare. So, we are talking about a genuine free speech crisis.”
While Lukianoff said Brits used to poke fun at “political correctness” in the United States, they have now taken it to the extreme. “The funny thing is they are doing this to route out ‘fascism’… in their own minds,” he added. “It’s kind of like huh?”
Global Concerns
Megyn called the trend “genuinely dangerous” and said it is not clear “how much more radical” the speech policing can get. “They are arresting people who are silently praying outside of abortion clinics,” she noted. “They are really hot on the trans issue. You cannot say anything about trans activism, trans activists, the gender issue. You have to be completely woke and politically correct on it, or you can wind up like Graham.”
It is a sentiment British politician Nigel Farage expressed while appearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. “[Linehan is] not even a British citizen. He’s an Irish citizen. This could happen to any American man or woman that goes to Heathrow that has said things online that the British government and British police don’t like,” he cautioned. “At what point did we become North Korea? Well, I think the Irish comedy writer found that out two days ago at Heathrow Airport. This is a genuinely worrying, concerning, and shocking situation.”
Megyn praised Farage for speaking out about the dangers, and she revealed Linehan will be a guest on The Megyn Kelly Show to share his story following his court date.
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Lukianoff by tuning in to episode 1,140 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.