The police watchdog has found that the Met may have unfairly arrested Graham Linehan because of his gender-critical beliefs. Last September, the Irish comedian was arrested at Heathrow by five armed police officers, then detained and questioned. His blood pressure rose so dangerously high that he needed treatment at A&E. His “crime”? Three gender-critical posts on X. With support from the Free Speech Union, @Glinner sent the Met a pre-action letter arguing that his arrest was unlawful. The force apologised publicly and paid him £25,000 in compensation. Graham also complained to the Met’s Director of Professional Standards about the way he was arrested and detained. The Met’s internal review described its handling of the case as “unacceptable”, but no officers were disciplined. Now the Independent Office for Police Conduct has said the review “did not go far enough” and its findings were “not reasonable or proportionate”. It has ordered the Met to reinvestigate how Graham was treated, including whether he was treated unfairly because of his gender-critical views, which are protected under the Equality Act 2010. This is a welcome development. The reinvestigation will examine whether political bias played a part in the Met’s treatment of Graham — and bring us one step closer to ensuring the police focus on policing our streets, not our tweets. Watch FSU External Affairs Officer @_ConnieShaw 👇