Crowdfunder raises £150,000 for his lawyers' fees

Graham Linehan has returned to X after the Free Speech Union campaigned to have his bail conditions loosened.

The Father Ted creator was told he must keep off the social media platform following his much-publicised arrest at Heathrow Airport on Monday over anti-trans tweets he made earlier in the year.

The Free Speech Union, set up by journalist Toby Young, set up a crowdfunder to pay Linehan’s legal fees – which has so far raised more than £150,000.

They have now succeeded in overturning the conditions which the writer called ‘absurd’ and ‘a legal gag order designed to shut me up while I’m [in] the UK’.

Thanks to my solicitors and the @SpeechUnion for getting my absurd bail conditions dropped! pic.twitter.com/g7ZqYuPlYq

— Graham Linehan ????️ (@Glinner) September 7, 2025

Linehan said his arrest was ‘a horrible glimpse of the dystopian clown show that Britain has become’, adding:  ‘One thing helped me get through it, which is knowing I have the Free Speech Union in my corner. 

‘They hired a crack lawyer to look after me… and if this ever goes to trial they’ll get a top barrister to defend me. The FSU will also support me by providing lawyers to advise on a claim against the Met Police for wrongful arrest and wrongful imprisonment in the hope that no one else is treated like a terrorist for speaking their mind on social media.’

The 57-year-old writer said he was arrested over tweets posted in April, including one which 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 balls’, which he said was intended as a joke in his police interview.

In a separate case, Linehan appeared in Westminster magistrates court last week on charges of harassment and criminal damage, which he denies. Read our court report here.

Published: 7 Sep 2025