How Lucy Connolly's racist tweet sparked a free speech row

Ben Schofield

BBC political correspondent, East of England

X.com A smiling Lucy Connolly looking directly down the camera. She has shoulder length, dark brown hair and brown eyes. She is seen indoors, in what appears to be a kitchen, with a white tiled splashback and work surface behind her. The edge of a hob extractor fan can also be seen behind her. — Lucy Connolly known as for lodges housing asylum seekers to be set on hearth and wrote “if that makes me racist, so be it”

Lucy Connolly’s 51-word on-line put up within the wake of the Southport killings led her to jail and into the centre of a row over free speech.

For some, the 31-month jail time period imposed for inciting race hate was “tyrannical”, whereas one commentator mentioned Connolly was a “hostage of the British state”, and one other that she was “clearly a political prisoner”.

Courtroom of Enchantment judges, nevertheless, this week refused to scale back her sentence.

Requested about her case in Parliament, Prime Minister Keir Starmer mentioned sentencing was “a matter for the courts” and that whereas he was “strongly in favour of free speech”, he was “equally in opposition to incitement to violence”.

Rupert Lowe, the impartial MP for Nice Yarmouth, mentioned the scenario was “morally repugnant” and added: “This isn’t the Britain I need to stay in.”

Others mentioned her supporters wished a “proper to be racist”.

Connolly’s authorized group argued her sentence was “manifestly extreme” however the Courtroom of Enchantment disagreed

Northamptonshire Police A police mugshot of Lucy Connolly. She is staring directly down the camera, with a neutral expression. Her hair is pulled back over her ears and behind her, in what appears to be a ponytail. She is wearing a pink top. — Connolly’s authorized group argued her sentence was “manifestly extreme” however the Courtroom of Enchantment disagreed

Warning: This report comprises racist and discriminatory language

In July final yr, prompted by a false hearsay that an unlawful immigrant was answerable for the homicide of three ladies at a dance workshop in Southport, Connolly posted on-line calling for “mass deportation now”, including “set hearth to all of the… lodges [housing asylum seekers]… for all I care”.

Connolly, then a 41-year-old Northampton childminder, added: “If that makes me racist, so be it.”

On the time she had about 9,000 followers on X. Her message was reposted 940 occasions and considered 310,000 occasions, earlier than she deleted it three and a half hours later.

In October she was jailed after admitting inciting racial hatred.

Three enchantment courtroom judges this week dominated the 31-month sentence was not “manifestly extreme”.

Connolly’s enchantment was paid for by the Free Speech Union, based by Lord Toby Younger (holding left fringe of the banner)

Stephen O’Grady, a authorized officer with the Free Speech Union (FSU), mentioned the sentence appeared “relatively steep in proportion to the offence”.

His organisation has labored with Connolly’s household since November and funded her enchantment.

Mr O’Grady mentioned Connolly “wasn’t some lager-fuelled hooligan on the streets” and pointed to her being a mom of a 12-year-old daughter, who had additionally misplaced a son when he was simply 19 months previous.

He mentioned there was a “distinction between howling racist abuse at any person on the street and throwing bricks on the police” and “sending tweets, which had been maybe regrettable however would not have the identical speedy impact”.

Stephen O’Grady mentioned Connolly’s case demonstrated “police overreach”

Free Speech Union A head and shoulders shot of Stephen O'Grady looking directly down the camera. He is standing against a white background and is wearing a brown jacket over a dark top. He is clean-shaven and is wearing glasses with black, metal, rectangular frames. His dark brown hair is parted on one side. — Stephen O’Grady mentioned Connolly’s case demonstrated “police overreach”

Connolly’s case was additionally “emblematic of wider considerations” about “rising police curiosity in folks’s on-line exercise”, Mr O’Grady mentioned.

The FSU had obtained “a slew of queries” from individuals who had been “very uncertain” about “the boundaries of what they will they will say on-line”, he mentioned, and who feared “the police are going to come back knocking on the door”.

“There’s an immense quantity of police overreach,” he added.

He cited the instance of a retired particular constable detained after difficult a pro-Palestine supporter on-line, a case the FSU took on.

Responding to Mr O’Grady’s declare, a Nationwide Police Chiefs’ Council spokesperson mentioned that Article 10 of the Human Rights Act “protects an individual’s proper to carry opinions and to specific them freely” and that officers obtained coaching in regards to the act.

They added: “It stays crucial that officers and employees proceed to obtain coaching commensurate with the calls for positioned upon them.”

Raymond Connolly mentioned the Courtroom of Enchantment had proven his spouse “no mercy”

PA Media Raymond Connolly standing outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London. He is looking down the barrel of the camera and is wearing a light blue, open-necked shirt with a dark blue jacket. He has a bald head and his expression is serious. The Gothic arched windows of the grey stone court building can be seen over his right shoulder, while the words "The Royal Courts of Justice" are out of focus on the wall over his left shoulder. — Raymond Connolly mentioned the Courtroom of Enchantment had proven his spouse “no mercy”

After the enchantment was dismissed, Connolly’s husband, Conservative city councillor Raymond Connolly, mentioned she was “an excellent particular person and never a racist” and had “paid a really excessive value for making a mistake”.

Her native Labour MP, Northampton South’s Mike Reader, mentioned he had “massive sympathy” for Connolly and her daughter, however there was no justification for accusing the police of “overreach”.

He mentioned: “I need the police to guard us on-line and I need the police to guard us on the streets and they need to be doing it equally.”

It was a “fallacy” and “misunderstanding of the world” if folks didn’t “imagine that the net house is as harmful for folks because the streets,” he added.

“We’re all hooked up to our telephones; we’re all influenced by what we see, and I believe it is proper that the police took motion right here.”

Connolly had pleaded responsible however argued at enchantment she had not supposed to incite severe violence

PA Media A white prison van with four small windows and the word Serco on the side driving through the gates of Northampton Crown Court. Two men are also in the frame - one wearing shorts and a t-shirt appears to be waving at the van while the other is a TV news camera operator and is filming the van heading into the court precinct. — Connolly had pleaded responsible however argued at enchantment she had not supposed to incite severe violence

In his sentencing remarks, Choose Melbourne Inman mentioned Connolly’s offence was “class A” – which means “excessive culpability” – and that each the prosecution and her personal barrister agreed she “supposed to incite severe violence”.

For Reader, this confirmed “they weren’t arguing this was a foolish tweet and he or she must be let off – her personal counsel agreed this was a severe situation”.

At her enchantment, Connolly claimed that whereas she accepted she supposed to fire up racial hatred, she at all times denied making an attempt to incite violence.

However Lord Justice Holroyde mentioned in a judgement this week the proof “clearly exhibits that she was properly conscious of what she was admitting”.

Sentencing pointers for the offence point out a place to begin of three years’ custody.

Whereas the prosecution argued the offence was aggravated by its timing, “notably delicate social local weather”, the defence argued the tweet had been posted earlier than any violence had began, and that Connolly had “subsequently tried to cease the violence after it had erupted”.

The judgement additionally highlighted different on-line posts from Connolly that the judges mentioned indicated her “view about unlawful immigrants”.

4 days earlier than the Southport murders, she responded to a video shared by far-right activist Tommy Robinson exhibiting a black man being tackled to the bottom for allegedly performing a intercourse act in public.

Connolly posted: “Somalian, I suppose. A great deal of them,” adopted by a vomiting emoji.

On 3 August, responding to an anti-racism protest in Manchester, she wrote: “I take it they’ll all be in line to enroll to accommodate an unlawful boat invader then. Oh sorry, refugee.

“Possibly signal a waiver to say they do not thoughts if it is one in all their household that will get attacked, butchered, raped and many others, by unvetted criminals.”

The FSU mentioned she was prone to be eligible for launch from August, after serving 40% of her sentence.

Some, together with Mr O’Grady, argued her jail time period was longer than punishments handed to criminals perceived to have dedicated “far worse” crimes.

Reform UK’s Mark Arnull, the chief of West Northamptonshire Council, mentioned it was not for him “to move touch upon sentences or certainly focus on particular person circumstances”.

However he added: “It is comparatively simple to grasp why constituents in West Northamptonshire query the proportionality of Lucy’s sentence once they see offenders in different high-profile and severe circumstances stroll free and keep away from jail.”

Shola Mos-Shogbamimu believed Connolly’s supporters wished a “proper to be racist”

Shola Mos-Shogbamimu Shola Mos-Shogbamimu photographed outside, against a blue sky, with a hint of a tree in the background in the bottom left hand corner. She is looking off-camera, towards the left of the frame and is holding a microphone in her right hand. She is pictured giving a speech and is mid-sentence. Her other hand is emphasising what is being said - held up to her head height, with her fingers spread and palm showing. She is wearing a rollneck black, white and grey sweater. — Shola Mos-Shogbamimu believed Connolly’s supporters wished a “proper to be racist”

The problem for author and activist Shola Mos-Shogbamimu was that “those that have dedicated worse crimes” ought to “spend extra time in jail, not much less time for Lucy Connolly”.

Dr Mos-Shogbamimu added: “It isn’t ‘freedom of speech with out accountability’. She did not tweet one thing that damage somebody’s emotions; she tweeted saying somebody ought to die.”

In her view, these making Connolly a “flag-bearer or champion” totally free speech had been asking for “the best to be racist”.

Free speech advocate Mr O’Grady mentioned “no-one is arguing for an unfettered ‘proper’ to incite racial hatred”.

Connolly’s case was about “proportionality”, he added, and “the sense that on-line speech is more and more being punished very harshly in comparison with different offending… akin to in-person violent dysfunction”.