The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that they will no longer be investigating controversial 'non-crime hate incidents'. 

They claimed that the reason behind this was to provide a 'clearer direction for officers' as the current situation was putting the force in an 'impossible position'. 

It comes just hours after Father Ted co-creator and gender critical campaigner Graham Linehan said that he will face no further police action over anti-trans tweets that saw him arrested at the airport. 

His arrest led to widespread criticism of the British police and how they are utilising resources, including from Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk who described Britain as a 'police state' and JK Rowling who called the incident 'totalitarian'.

While, Sir James Cleverly said the arrest of Mr Linehan looked like a 'real overreaction' to what was 'self-evidently a joke' and shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick described the incident as 'a complete waste of police time'. 

The Met Police statement on Monday evening read: 'We understand the concern around this case. The Commissioner has been clear he doesn't believe officers should be policing toxic culture war debates, with current laws and rules on inciting violence online leaving them in an impossible position.

'As a result, the Met will no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents. We believe this will provide clearer direction for officers, reduce ambiguity and enable them to focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigations.

'These incidents will still be recorded and used as valuable pieces of intelligence to establish potential patterns of behaviour or criminality.

'We will continue to investigate and arrest those who commit hate crimes, allowing us to comply with statutory guidance while focusing our resources on criminality and public protection.'

A study by think-tank Policy Exchange estimated that police wasted 60,000 hours on non-crime hate incidents every year, diverting them away from their 'core mission of fighting crime'.

NCHIs were meant to allow intelligence to be gathered on incidents that did not reach the threshold for prosecution, particularly in cases of alleged racism.

But police use of them expanded to investigate complaints against someone who has lawfully expressed an opinion.

Last month Mr Linehan, 57, was met by armed police when he touched down at Heathrow Airport from Arizona in the US and detained on suspicion of inciting violence.

The Irish comedy writer, who also co-wrote and directed sitcoms such as Black Books, The IT Crowd and Count Arthur Strong, was detained in relation to three tweets which police deemed to warrant an arrest on suspicion of inciting violence. 

The first, from 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 balls.'

A second tweet, on April 19, was a picture of a trans rally with the caption: 'A photo you can smell.' The third was a follow-up to this tweet which said: 'I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.'

Today he posted on X, formerly Twitter: 'The police have informed my lawyers that I face no further action in respect of the arrest at Heathrow in September.

'After a successful hearing to get my bail conditions lifted (one which the police officer in charge of the case didn't even bother to attend) the Crown Prosecution Service has dropped the case.

'With the aid of the Free Speech Union, I still aim to hold the police accountable for what is only the latest attempt to silence and suppress gender critical voices on behalf of dangerous and disturbed men.'

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: 'Following careful review of a file submitted by the Metropolitan Police, we have decided that no further action should be taken in relation to a man in his 50s who was arrested on 1 September 2025.'

Mr Linehan, currently living across the Atlantic, later declared he would no longer want to return to Britain after his arrest that was met with fury from high-profile figures such as Harry Potter author JK Rowling who came to his support by branding the detention 'utterly deplorable'.

The writer was heard audibly fuming in disbelief when he was stopped by armed officers at the west London airport.

He told them: 'I'm a f****** comedy writer, I wrote Father Ted. Are you a f****** idiot?... It's just disgraceful.'

When told he was under arrest, Linehan shouted: 'Holy s***, I don't f****** believe it, do you know what this country looks like to America?,' before telling them 'I'm going to sue you into the ground'.

He called the officers 'f****** bastards' and shouted 'how dare you' before they urged him to calm down.

Shortly afterwards, Linehan can be heard saying: 'I'm f****** infuriated. You scumbags are working for f****** arseholes who go into women's toilets.'

After his arrest, the writer claimed he was escorted to A&E 'because the stress nearly killed me' - adding that his blood pressure was recorded at over 200mm Hg by a nurse.

Conservative politicians have also weighted in on the debate with Kemi Badenoch saying last month that she would free police to catch criminals again as she said forces had focused too much on 'chasing tweets instead of thieves'.

Sir Andy Marsh who leads the College of Policing warned earlier this year that recording 'non-crime hate incidents' had become a 'distraction' which is damaging public trust.

While the Greater Manchester chief Sir Stephen Watson joined his call saying: 'It's easy to assume that we have some sort of weird fetish chasing stuff in social media, frankly we would really rather not if we can avoid it.

'In the context of things that are communicated online, people will accuse us sometimes of pursuing hurty words on the basis, somehow, it's an attack on free speech.'

He added: 'I do think it has become a distraction. It has become something that the public trouble themselves over and particularly when they contrast our being seen to do things which they would argue are not matters for the police – and in certain examples they are right – contrast that with some of our failures to do some of the basics and that really annoys people.' 

As of July this year there have been 133,000 non-crime hate incidents logged by the police. 

Non-crime hate incidents are incidents that do not count as crimes but are perceived to be motivated by hatred towards certain characteristics such as race or gender.