The Metropolitan Police have apologised to comedian and campaigner Graham Linehan and reached a settlement, reported to be £25,000, over his arrest in September 2025 for posts on X. Five armed officers detained the Irish comedy writer at Heathrow, on suspicion of inciting hatred under the Public Order Act, as he returned from Arizona. The case matters because it fuelled a national debate about policing, free speech and the recording of non-crime hate incidents.

The Met said it recognised the "considerable distress" caused and offered "sincere apologies", issuing a second apology alongside the settlement after an earlier one in May. Linehan was arrested over three posts, including one urging people to "punch" a trans-identified male in a female-only space; the matter was later treated as a non-crime hate incident and the investigation dropped. In October 2025 the Met announced it would no longer investigate such incidents. Linehan, backed by the Free Speech Union, was arrested separately in a case where his conviction for damaging an activist's phone was recently overturned.