Daily Telegraph readers have woken up this week to successive front-page headlines alleging a grave threat to free speech, triggered by a star columnist’s “Kafkaesque” encounter with police.
The rightwing broadsheet described how Essex police had told Allison Pearson on her doorstep last weekend that she was under investigation for allegedly stirring up racial hatred in a tweet last year.
The Telegraph and Pearson say they are unaware which post caused two officers to knock on her door at 9.40am on Remembrance Sunday.
But the Guardian believes it has found the post at the centre of the row.
It is an alleged retweet by Pearson of a photograph posted several months ago amid heightened tensions over the policing of Gaza protests. It shows a group of people of colour posing with a flag on a British street, flanked by three police officers.
The photograph angered Pearson, who allegedly wrote a tweet condemning the Metropolitan police: “How dare they.
“Invited to pose for a photo with lovely peaceful British Friends of Israel on Saturday police refused. Look at this lot smiling with the Jew haters.”
In fact, the picture is from Manchester, sources confirm, and thus the officers pictured are from Greater Manchester police and not the London force.
The implication that the Muslims pictured are antisemitic and supporting Hamas is undermined by the green and maroon flag they are holding. The flag is used by supporters of the Pakistani political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). It also, rather clearly, has the word “Pakistan” written on it.
PTI was founded by the former international cricketer Imran Khan, who became prime minister of Pakistan before being deposed and jailed.
On Friday the Telegraph said Pearson had “deleted the post after the mistake was pointed out”.
The person who complained to the police is not Muslim nor one of those pictured. They are a former public servant with training in criminal law. They wish to stay anonymous, fearing reprisals, especially from far-right elements, but told the Guardian the post by Pearson was “racist and inflammatory” – which she denies.
They added: “Pearson tweeted something that had nothing to do with Palestine or the London protests: she tweeted a picture of two persons of colour holding a flag of a Pakistani political party standing next to some GMP officers … Her description of the two people of colour as Jew haters is racist and inflammatory.
“Each time an influential person makes negative comments about people of colour I, as a person of colour, see an uptick in racist abuse towards me and the days after that tweet are no different.”
The row has led Essex police to report the Telegraph to a media standards body, claiming some of its reporting has been false. The force has also set up a “gold group”, used by police to deal with a critical incident.
Last Sunday, officers visited Pearson’s home asking her to attend a voluntary interview after a complaint that the writer had incited racial hatred.
The Telegraph and Pearson castigated police and said the visit was an affront to free speech and freedom of the press. Their disbelief was shared by senior lawyers, the former Telegraph journalist Boris Johnson and other leading Conservatives, as well as Elon Musk.
The complainant first went to a different force, in April, which passed it on. Essex police initially did not wish to investigate, but then reviewed their decision and decided they should.
The complainant said: “As a former public servant, I was concerned about the tweet that Pearson put out last year so much so that I reported it to the police … I have no political affiliation and will call out racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia when I see it.
“This is not a debate about free speech; this is about a journalist who tweeted something false during the height of the tensions in London following the 7 October atrocities.
“She could have tweeted an apology stating she was wrong. She didn’t.
“I am not a leftwing activist, I am a member of the public shocked by her original tweet, and her recent doubling down is not helping.”
In a post on X on Thursday, Pearson wrote: “The British people deserve to be informed about the Kafkaesque state of their justice system.
“Instead of solving frightening crime police are frightening people.”
The visit by officers to Pearson’s Essex home was captured on body-worn video. A source insisted police were polite and merely trying to arrange a proper interview, where Pearson could have a lawyer present and answer questions, in keeping with laws governing police interviews.
Neither Pearson nor the Telegraph responded to requests for comment.
