The Proclaimers say trans lobby are “truth-phobic” and defend Graham Linehan

The Proclaimers have hit out at trans-rights activists as “truth-phobic” and defended the controversial Father Ted creator Graham Linehan for his comments on the subject The ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ Scottish duo, formed of twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid, shared the comment in a new interview with The Times , promoting their new album ‘You May Offend’.

The brothers shared their disagreement about the Gender Recognition Reform bill passed in Scotland in 2022 by the Scottish National Party, which made it easier for trans people living there to change their gender legally.

Craig said he believed that the move has “done real damage”, and alleged that it has led to “violent men, including convicted rapists” being sent to women’s prisons.

He added that he is “not transphobic”, but just against how “people have lost their careers” by saying “a woman is an adult human female”.

He also said that anyone who tries to do so is “shouted down by 0.5 per cent” who “are male and who think that because they put on a dress, and they put on makeup, that that makes them a female”.

“You have to have freedom of thought.” Ahead of provocative new album named You May Offend, Craig and Charlie Reid talk about their anger at the SNP, Western warmongering and the imperilment of free speech.

Read the interview with The Proclaimers here https://t.co/UFFUUzSIJG pic.twitter.com/dzVmgNXv71 — The Telegraph (@Telegraph) September 9, 2026 Craig added: “I’m not transphobic.

I’m not against a man identifying as a woman, dressing as a woman.

I’m not against any of that.

All I’m against is saying that he actually is a woman when he’s not a woman.

“A lot of these folk are basically truth-phobic.

They’ll deny the biological reality.

Then if you insist on it, they’ll say that you are hurting their feelings.

That you’re disrespecting them.