WASHINGTON (TNND) — Nigel Farage, leader of the United Kingdom’s right-wing Reform Party, shared a warning to American citizens seeking to travel to his country after English authorities arrested an Irish comedy writer earlier this week for his anti-transgender rhetoric shared on social media.

After landing in Heathrow on Monday, Graham Lineham was met by five armed police officers, who questioned and then arrested him, according to Lineham’s Substack. He revealed that he was under arrest for three tweets made about the transgender community back in April.

In one of the tweets which led to Lineham’s arrest he wrote: ““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 balls.”

“He’s not even a British citizen,” Farage, referring to Linehan, told the House Judiciary Committee. “He’s an Irish citizen,”This could happen to any American man or woman that goes to Heathrow, that has said things online that the British government and British police don’t like.”

Farage was a guest of House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) fora hearing titled “Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation.”

Meanwhile, London’s Metropolitan Police did not directly say that Lineham was in their custody but did confirm it has arrested a man in his 50s “on suspicion of inciting violence.”

Lineham shared that he was released from police custody after posting bail which had only one condition: he is not allowed to go on Twitter.

“That’s it. No threats, no speeches about the seriousness of my crimes—just a legal gag order designed to shut me up while I’m the UK, and a demand I face a further interview in October,” Lineham wrote on his Substack.

London Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley defended the actions of his officers, but aired caution to his officers being used to intervene in internet “culture war.”

“I don’t believe we should be policing toxic culture wars debates and officers are currently in an impossible position,” Rowley said in a statement, the BBC reported.

Lineman’s arrest was permitted under the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act passed in 2023, which critics like Farage say results in an unfair restriction of free speech. Although, unlike the United States, the United Kingdom does not have a general right to free speech, but instead has outlined a framework for free speech based on its interpretation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights applied in the Human Rights Act passed in 1998.

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