London’s Metropolitan Police says officers will stop investigating controversial ‘non-crime hate incidents’ after it was revealed Father Ted writer Graham Linehan faces no further action over anti-trans tweets

The Metropolitan Police has confirmed it will no longer investigate controversial ‘non-criminal hate incidents’.

They claimed the reason behind this was to ‘give clearer instruction to officers’ as the current situation puts the force in an ‘impossible situation’.

It came just hours after Father Ted co-creator and gender critical campaigner Graham Linehan said he would no longer face police investigation over anti-trans tweets that saw him arrested at the airport.

His arrest sparked widespread criticism of the British police and how they use resources; these included Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk, who described Britain as a “police state”, and JK Rowling, who called the event “totalitarian”.

Sir James Cleverly said Mr Linehan’s arrest appeared to be a “truly overreaction” to what was “a complete joke”, while shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick described the incident as “a complete waste of the police’s time”.

The Met Police’s statement on Monday evening said: ‘We understand the concerns about this case. The commissioner has made clear that he does not believe police officers should police toxic culture war debates; Current law and rules on promoting online violence leave them in an impossible situation.

‘As a result, the Met will no longer investigate non-criminal hate incidents. We believe this will give officers clearer direction, reduce uncertainty and allow them to focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigation.

‘These incidents will still be recorded and used as valuable pieces of intelligence to identify potential patterns of behavior or criminality.

‘We will continue to investigate and arrest those who commit hate crimes, which will allow us to comply with legal instructions while focusing our resources on crime and public protection.’

Research by think tank Policy Exchange estimates that police spend 60,000 hours each year on non-criminal hate incidents, distracting them from their ‘core mission of fighting crime’.

The purpose of NCHIs was to allow the collection of intelligence on incidents that did not meet the threshold for prosecution, particularly in cases of alleged racism.

However, the police’s use of these methods to investigate complaints against someone expressing a legitimate opinion has been expanded.

Last month, Mr Linehan, 57, was greeted by armed police when he landed at Heathrow Airport in the US state of Arizona and was detained on suspicion of inciting violence.

The Irish comedy writer, who also co-wrote and directed sitcoms such as Black Books, The IT Crowd and Count Arthur Strong, was detained in connection with three tweets for which police issued an arrest warrant on suspicion of inciting violence.

The first, from April 20, read: ‘If a trans-identified man is in a women-only area, he is committing a violent, harassing act. Make a scene, call the police and if all else fails, punch him in the balls.’

The second tweet, on April 19, was a photo of a trans rally and was captioned: ‘A photo you can smell’. The third was a follow-up to this tweet: ‘I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. ‘Fuck them.’

Today he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: ‘Police have informed my lawyers that I am not facing any further action in relation to the arrest at Heathrow in September.

‘After a successful hearing to revoke my bail conditions (which the police officer in charge of the case did not even bother to attend) the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case.

‘With the help of the Freedom of Expression League, I still aim to hold the police accountable for the latest attempt to silence and suppress gender critical voices on behalf of dangerous and disturbed men.’

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: ‘After carefully reviewing a file submitted by the Metropolitan Police, we have determined that no further action should be taken in relation to a man in his 50s who was arrested on 1 September 2025.’

Mr Linehan, who now lives across the Atlantic, later announced he would no longer wish to return to Britain following his arrest, which was met with outrage from high-profile figures such as Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who came to his support describing his arrest as ‘extremely deplorable’.

The writer was heard fuming in disbelief when he was stopped by armed police at west London airport.

He told them: ‘I’m a comedy writer, I wrote Father Ted. Are you an idiot?… This is just embarrassing.’

Graham Linehan (above) posted this photo online, taken at A&E after being tested for high blood pressure following his arrest at Heathrow airport in September 2025.

When told he had been arrested, Linehan said, ‘Wow, I don’t believe this, do you know what this country looks like to America?’ he shouted and then said, ‘I will sue you to the ground.’

He called officers ‘fucking bastards’ and shouted ‘how dare you’ before they urged him to calm down.

Shortly after, Linehan can be heard saying: ‘I was so angry. ‘You scumbags work for the scumbags who go into women’s toilets.’

The writer claimed he was taken to A&E after his arrest because ‘the stress nearly killed me’, adding that his blood pressure was recorded by a nurse as over 200mm Hg.

Conservative politicians also weighed in on the debate; Kemi Badenoch said last month he would give police free rein to catch criminals because forces were too focused on ‘chasing tweets rather than thieves’.

Sir Andy Marsh, president of the College of Policing, warned earlier this year that recording ‘non-crime hate incidents’ was becoming a ‘distraction’ that undermines public trust.

Greater Manchester chief Sir Stephen Watson also joined the call, saying: ‘It’s easy to assume we’re pursuing some sort of weird fetish on social media, which frankly we’d really rather not do if we can avoid it.

‘In the context of things communicated online, people will sometimes accuse us of making hurtful remarks on the grounds that this is somehow an attack on freedom of expression.’

He added: ‘I think it’s become distracting. ‘It’s become something that makes the public uncomfortable, and particularly when they contrast it with the fact that we appear to be doing things that they claim are not the police’s job – and in some instances they’re right – when they compare it to our failure to do some basic things, and that really bothers people.’

As of July this year, 133,000 non-criminal hate incidents were recorded by police.

Non-criminal hate incidents are incidents that are not considered crimes but are thought to arise from hatred towards specific characteristics, such as race or gender.