Nigel Farage Warns Americans Traveling to UK Could Face Arrest

Nigel Farage told a House committee that American citizens faced the risk of arrest if they traveled to the U.K. having made social media posts that fall foul of British laws on speech.

The British politician, who is a member of parliament and leads the country’s right-wing Reform U.K. party, gave the warning after the arrest at Heathrow Airport of Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan over his X posts on trans rights issues.

“He’s not even a British citizen. 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 told the House judiciary committee on Wednesday, September 3.

“It is a potentially big threat to tech bosses, to many, many others.”

Linehan had made a reference in one post to punching a trans person who had entered a female space in the balls to make them leave, which he told police was a joke.

“At what point did we become North Korea?” Farage told the committee. “Well I think the Irish comedy writer found that out two days ago at Heathrow Airport. This is a genuinely worrying, concerning, and shocking situation.”

The free speech situation in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe has been a talking point for the right in the U.S.

London Met Chief Decries ‘Culture Wars’ Policing

Following outcry over Linehan’s arrest, London’s Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Mark Rowley said his officers have been put in an “impossible position” and they should not be “policing toxic culture wars debates”.

Rowley said in a statement to the media that his officers had arrested Linehan under existing legislation, “which dictates that a threat to punch someone from a protected group could be an offence”.

However, he said he understood the concerns that have arisen from incidents such as this, “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,” Rowley said.

“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 enquiry 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.”

This is a developing article. Updates to follow.