The Free Speech Union secures solicitor for Wings Over Scotland editor after police sought middle-of-the-night arrest

Max Thompson, Campaigns Officer

5 August 2026

The editor of Wings Over Scotland, Rev Stuart Campbell, was questioned by police as a result of a complaint from Lynsay Watson, a trans activist. It is a truly shocking story.

Cases involving people penalised or silenced for holding or expressing gender-critical beliefs remain the single biggest category handled by the Free Speech Union. This is despite the fact that gender-critical beliefs are protected under the Equality Act 2010, a position reaffirmed last year by the Supreme Court's landmark ruling that "sex" under the Act is defined by biology rather than gender identity.

In mid-April, Campbell, then away from home, received a phone call from “Bath Police” saying they were investigating a harassment complaint against him and asked him to attend a voluntary interview, adding that he would be arrested if he declined. Campbell asked the caller to confirm her identity by text or email; he heard nothing further.

Last month, Campbell received a call at 1:30 in the morning from a police officer, who demanded that he submit immediately to arrest and be taken to Keynsham Police Centre, around ten miles away. Campbell says he was still in the process of verifying this caller's identity by email when his doorbell began ringing and his door was hammered on, at a quarter past two in the morning. He did not answer, and instead contacted the Free Speech Union, which he has described as the last bastion of civil liberties in the UK.

Subsequently, the Free Speech Union lined Campbell up with experienced solicitor Daniel Berke. Berke negotiated a voluntary interview in place of arrest, which took place on 3rd August at a police office in Bath.

Campbell says the interview opened with allegations that he had published "false and demeaning" articles about Watson and had repeatedly misgendered him — claims Berke argued, on record, did not meet any criminal threshold, since misgendering is not an offence and civil defamation, not a police complaint, is the proper remedy for disputed published claims.

The specific material put to Campbell, he says, consisted of two posts on X and a third item posted by someone else entirely. The two posts, both his own, joked that Watson was living in a caravan or campervan. The third item shown to him, he says, was a tweet by an entirely different person, using an edited photograph of Watson, that he had never seen, shared, retweeted, or replied to in any way. He says the officer offered no explanation for why it had been attributed to him. The interview concluded shortly afterwards with no further questions.

The Free Speech Union is proud to have supported Campbell and his right to express gender-critical views.

Read more here.