Streeting says there are ‘unintended consequences’ of hate speech laws after arrest of Father Ted writer – UK politics live

Health secretary says government needs to balance legislation so police are ‘not just policing tweets’ following detention of Graham Linehan over posts on transgender issuesAt the Downing Street lobby briefing yesterday the PM’s spokesperson was reluctant to comment directly on the arrest of Graham Linehan. But he did say that Keir Starmer thought the police should be focusing on “antisocial behaviour, shoplifting, street crime, as well as reducing serious violent crimes like knife crime and violence against women”. The Daily Telegraph has interepreted that as an attack on the Met.Wes Streeting, the health secretary, was on the media round this morning and in some respects he adopted the same line. Asked about the arrest, he told Times Radio: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.One thing I would say, because it’s always 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 … If the police are enforcing things that we think are a waste of time or a distraction from more important things, that’s on us to sort out.I’m very glad that we live in a country where we come down like a tonne of bricks on racism and discrimination. That is the right thing to do … There have always been legitimate boundaries when it comes to hate speech, which is about protecting others from harm.Sometimes those boundaries and those lines are blurred, and we are talking shades of grey, rather than black and white. That’s why this is complicated. It’s complicated for legislators, and it is hard for the police sometimes, because they they have to apply the law as it is written, not the law as sometimes it was intended. Continue reading...

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