Britain’s most senior police officer has called for the government to change or clarify the law regarding free speech amid intense public debate over the arrest of an Irish comedian on suspicion of inciting violence against transgender people on social media. Mark Rowley, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, which serves the London area, said his officers had been put in an “impossible position” in which laws were drawing them into “toxic culture-wars debates.”In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Rowley said he had suggested to the government changes that would enable police to “limit the resources we dedicate to tackling online statements to those cases creating real threats in the real world.”Mr. Rowley was responding to criticism over the arrest of Graham Linehan, an Irish comedy writer and anti-transgender activist who was detained at Heathrow Airport on Monday. Mr. Linehan, who was a creator of the 1990s comedy series “Father Ted” and wrote and directed “The I.T. Crowd,” said he was arrested after landing at Heathrow, near London, on a flight from Arizona.

Source: The Times September 03, 2025 17:39 UTC