J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk lead the backlash over Graham Linehan’s arrest

J.K. Rowling (pictured) and Elon Musk have led the backlash against Graham Linehan’s arrest over a series of social media posts about the trans community. Photo / Getty Images

J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk have led the backlash against Graham Linehan’s arrest over a series of social media posts about the trans community.

The Harry Potter author and Tesla-owning billionaire hit out after the 57-year-old creator of Father Ted and The IT Crowd was arrested at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday after stepping off a flight from Arizona.

Linehan was detained around 1pm on Monday by five armed officers from the Metropolitan police’s aviation unit on suspicion of inciting violence in relation to posts he made on X, formerly Twitter, in April.

He said he was treated “like a terrorist” before being questioned about three messages on the platform.

The Met said officers later became concerned for his health and he was taken to hospital before being bailed pending further investigation.

Tesla and X chief executive Musk, 54, described Britain as a “police state” after the news broke, while Rowling, 60, said online: “What the f*** has the UK become? This is totalitarianism. Utterly deplorable.”

Linehan posted on his Substack account the messages he said led to his arrest.

One on April 20 read: “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 b****.”

A post from the previous day, accompanied by a photograph of a trans rally, said: “A photo you can smell.”

A follow-up read: “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.”

Piers Morgan, 60, said on X after Linehan’s arrest: “What’s happened to Graham today is absolutely ridiculous. Five armed cops arresting him at Heathrow for tweets mocking the scandal of biological men invading women’s spaces? When it comes to free speech, Britain’s turning into North Korea.”

Robert Jenrick, the shadow Justice Secretary, wrote about the incident: “This is ridiculous and a complete waste of police time.

“The police only respond to 1 in 5 reported shoplifting offences, but deployed 5 armed officers to arrest a comedian over three tweets. We desperately need to end this nonsense and go after actual criminals.”

Iain Dale, the LBC presenter, said: “This is an outrage. Graham has been pretty vile to me in the past on Twitter, but I stand with him on this outrageous experience ... what an utter waste of police time.”

Neil O’Brien, a Conservative MP for Harborough, posted: “Britain is now a total laughing stock – a country where we arrest the authors of light comedies and interrogate them about their tweets. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.”

The Free Speech Union said it would fund Linehan’s legal defence, calling the arrest “a disproportionate response”.

Linehan said he was banned from using X as a bail condition and is due to return for further questioning in October.

He is separately facing trial at Westminster magistrates’ court on Thursday (04.09.25) over allegations of harassing trans activist Sophia Brooks and damaging her phone last October – charges he denied at a hearing in May.

The Met police said: “The man in his 50s was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence. The arrest was made by officers from the MPS aviation unit.

“It is routine for officers policing airports to carry firearms. These were not drawn or used at any point during the arrest.”