Lorraine Kelly slammed for Graham Linehan remarks as ITV star reacts to comedy writer’s arrest: ‘We all know her side!’
Lorraine Kelly has come under fire from several ITV viewers following her comments about Graham Linehan’s arrest on her self-titled talk show.
Speaking on Wednesday, two days after Mr Linehan was arrested by five armed officers at Heathrow Airport, Ms Kelly and the channel’s entertainment correspondent, Rishi Davda, went over the details.
Ms Kelly said to her colleague: “Now across the front pages this morning is the arrest of the creator of Father Ted, Graham Linehan, over social media posts that he shared on trans rights.
“Rishi is back with me… he got arrested upon getting back into the country?” she asked, to which Mr Davda replied: “Yes, Heathrow Airport.
“He was met by five armed officers who arrested him for three social media posts he made back in April. He was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence.
“Now, the arrest has been criticised by a number of people, including the author JK Rowling, and Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch.
“He arrived back from the US and said in an online article after the arrest that officials had become concerned with his health because of his blood pressure, and he was then taken to hospital.”
Ms Kelly then weighed in with her thoughts: “Gosh, and five armed police officers? Oh, jeez… It’s just… It is horrendous.
“We’ll be finding out a lot more about this because everybody is going to have an opinion on it.
“I think most of us are in the middle, we just want people to be safe and live their lives the way that they want to, for goodness sake,” she signed off.
However, it’s safe to say several felt that Ms Kelly’s placing of herself “in the middle” of the debate surrounding trans issues wasn’t quite accurate.
While Mr Linehan has been a vocal supporter of biological women’s rights and spaces within the debate, Ms Kelly has been a prominent ally to the trans community for decades.
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In March this year, for instance, Ms Kelly told Metro it was her “duty” to stand up for trans people and the LGBTQ+ community. “People in the gay and trans communities have trusted me with their stories, they really have,” she told the publication.
“I don’t like when trans people have to come on and try and justify their experience because no one else has to. It’s really about showing the person behind the label – we’re all far more complex than labels.
“People look at statistics and they don’t see human beings, so that’s my job. The trans community has the odds stacked against them anyway, trying to navigate a new world that’s gone backwards.
“When I grew up, people in the 70s and 80s and people were more tolerant about trans people than they are now.”
Therefore, following Kelly’s comments on the Linehan situation, it was no surprise that some took issue with her stance.
One X user claimed Ms Kelly “flew through the Linehan issue” before adding: “I wonder why…we all know what side she’s on… #lorraine.”
Elsewhere, a second weighed in to claim there was “nothing illegal about Graham’s comments” and he was “calling out misogynists and homophobes”.
A third took aim at the presenter: “Lorraine (Brit TV) on Glinner. She just said something like – most of us are in the middle and want everyone to live their lives. Lorraine, in the middle?” followed by a laughing emoji.
While a fourth blasted: “Police making themselves look right t**ts. What is happening to this country? #lorraine.”
It isn’t just the aforementioned Ms Rowling and Ms Badenoch who’ve publicly criticised Mr Linehan’s arrest. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke out on Wednesday, urging police to focus on “serious” crimes.
A spokesperson for Mr Starmer said: “This is an operational matter for the police, but the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary have been clear about what their priorities on crime and policing are: that’s tackling antisocial behaviour, shoplifting, and street crime, as well as reducing serious violent crime such as knife crime and violence against women.
“The Met Police Commissioner himself has talked previously about recruits joining the police to protect the public, and that he wants the police to exist to protect the public, spending their time dealing with the issues that matter most to their communities.”
The Father Ted co-creator was detained by armed officers at Heathrow on Monday over social media posts from April.
The 57-year-old writer alleges that he was met by five armed officers upon disembarking from a flight that had arrived from Arizona
Mr Linehan claimed he had been treated like a “terrorist” by police following the arrest after being hauled into a cell “like a criminal”.
After the incident, a spokesman for Scotland Yard confirmed that a man in his 50s had been arrested on suspicion of breaking Part 3A of the Public Order Act. This section of the Act prohibits the use of words or written material that seeks to stir up hatred on religious and sexual grounds.