British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the focus for the police force must be on serious crime, following the arrest of writer Graham Linehan yesterday.

Mr Starmer made the comments in the House of Commons where he was asked to respond to the arrest of the Father Ted co-creator at Heathrow Airport over three anti-trans social media posts.

The police said the arrest was made on suspicion of inciting violence.

The British Prime Minister told the Commons: “We have a long history of free speech in this country. I’m very proud of that and I will always defend it.”

“I’ve been clear throughout that we must ensure the police focus on the most serious issues, and the issues that matter most to our constituencies and all communities, and that includes tackling issues like anti-social behaviour, knife crime and violence,” he said.

‘Impossible position’

Earlier, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said that his officers are in an “impossible position” and should not be “policing toxic culture wars”.

Mr Rowley said he had made suggestions to government about how laws governing social media posts could be changed, and was ready to test new approaches “within a matter of weeks”.

He said: “While the decision to investigate and ultimately arrest the man was made within existing legislation, which dictates that a threat to punch someone from a protected group could be an offence, I understand the concern caused by such incidents given differing perspectives on the balance between free speech and the risks of inciting violence in the real world.

“Most reasonable people would agree that genuine threats of physical violence against an identified person or group should be acted upon by officers.

“Such actions can and do have serious and violent real-world implications.

“But when it comes to lesser cases, where there is ambiguity in terms of intent and harm, policing has been left between a rock and a hard place by successive governments, who have given officers no choice but to record such incidents as crimes when they’re reported.

“Then they are obliged to follow all lines of inquiry and take action as appropriate.

“I don’t believe we should be policing toxic culture wars debates and officers are currently in an impossible position,” he said.