Mr Linehan said he was detained by five armed officers at Heathrow after flying in from the US and was told he was under arrest over three posts on X. The government lists priorities as tackling anti-social behaviour, shoplifting, street crime, and reducing serious violent crimes such as knife crime and violence against women. Mr Streeting said police enforce laws set by legislators and that the balance of police tasking must be reviewed if officers are distracted from higher priorities. He rejected the idea that free speech is banned but called for a debate on the issue.
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.
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.
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,
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