Wes Streeting has suggested the Government could look at legislation if the law is “not getting the balance right” on free speech, after the arrest of Father Ted writer Graham Linehan.
Mr Linehan, 57, said he had been detained by five armed officers at Heathrow Airport after flying in from the US, and was told he was under arrest over three posts on X.
The Government wants to keep people safe by “policing streets, not just policing tweets”, Health Secretary Mr Streeting said.
Downing Street has said the Government’s priorities for crime and policing are “tackling anti-social behaviour, shoplifting, street crime” and “reducing serious violent crimes like knife crime and violence against women”.
Mr Streeting told Times Radio that while he could not comment on live investigations or operational policing decisions, he could talk about “the principle”.
“I think the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary have been very clear that with the law and order challenges we’ve got in our country, we want to see people being kept safe by policing streets, not just policing tweets.”
He added: “It’s very easy for people to criticise the police. The police enforce the laws of the land that we as legislators provide.
“So if we’re not getting the balance right, then that’s something that we all have to look at and consider.”
Mr Streeting also rejected the suggestion that free speech was now “banned”, but added: “I do think it’s worth us having a debate,” on the issue.
He said the Government would “deal with” policing priorities if Parliament has distracted officers from focusing on “the right things”, in comments to Sky News.
“One of the things the Home Secretary is looking at is, are we tasking the police, are we asking the police to focus on the right things?
“And if we’ve distracted, as Parliament under the previous government, if they’ve been distracted, being asked to do things we don’t see as a priority, well that is something that we will deal with,” Mr Streeting said.
Mr Streeting acknowledged that people are “anxious” about some of the cases where people have been prosecuted for online posts.
“And I think we are all, let’s be honest, quite anxious about some of the cases we’ve seen in the media, or proceed through the courts, of what people have said online, where you think ‘Was that really what Parliament intended when they passed these laws?’” he told the BBC’s Today programme.
Last night Irish comedy writer Linehan, who said he was bailed on condition he did not use X, told the Daily Mail: “After spending a decade obsessing over their score on the Stonewall virtue index, the police can no longer tell up from down, left from right and, most worryingly of all, right from wrong.”
He said he was detained by five armed officers and taken into a cell to be questioned over messages published in April.
One said: “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.”
Another was a photograph of a trans-rights protest, with the comment “a photo you can smell”, with a follow-up post saying: “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.”
He said that after being questioned by police his blood pressure had reached “stroke territory” and he was taken to hospital and kept under observation, before being released on bail.
The Metropolitan Police did not identify Linehan, but a spokeswoman said officers had arrested a man on Monday “on suspicion of inciting violence” and that the arrest was “in relation to posts on X”.
Opposition politicians and Harry Potter author JK Rowling are among those who have criticised the arrest.
Senior Tory Sir James Cleverly said the arrest looked like a “real overreaction” to what was “self-evidently a joke”.
Shadow housing secretary Sir James told Times Radio: “From what I have seen, and I don’t have all the details, this does look like a real overreaction to what was self-evidently a joke, and people can decide whether it was a funny joke or not a funny joke.
“I think he has himself said that it wasn’t a great joke, but to be arrested over something like that I think is an over-reach, and we’ve got to stop policing people because some people have taken offence.
“It was clearly, clearly not a serious incitement and I think there is an atmosphere that could just do with calming down a bit.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is expected to raise the case at a House Judiciary Committee in the US on free speech on Wednesday.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick described the incident as “a complete waste of police time”, adding: “We desperately need to end this nonsense and go after actual criminals.”
But new Green Party leader Zack Polanski told BBC Newsnight the posts were “totally unacceptable” and the arrest seemed “proportionate”.
Separately, Linehan will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday accused of harassing transgender woman Sophia Brooks and damaging her phone, which he denies.
