Lucy Connolly, the 41-year-old childminder jailed for inciting racial hatred after calling for migrant hotels to be set on fire, is due to be released from prison within weeks, after serving less than half of her sentence. Ms Connolly was sentenced to 31 months in October last year after a social media post made in the aftermath of the Southport dance studio killings, in which three young girls were stabbed to death. False rumours circulating at the time wrongly claimed the suspect was an illegal immigrant, with wide scale rioting across the UK.
In response, Ms Connolly tweeted: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f* hotels full of the b** for all I care… if that makes me racist so be it.” The tweet was viewed more than 300,000 times before being deleted. Connolly, a registered childminder from Northampton and wife of former Conservative councillor Raymond Connolly, was arrested and charged with inciting racial hatred. She was found guilty by a jury and sent to HMP Peterborough and in May, lost an appeal to reduce her sentence.
Her release in August will come after serving around 40% of her sentence — in line with standard release provisions for non-violent offenders — but the case has reignited national debate over freedom of speech, online hate, and the proportionality of sentencing.
Critics of the decision to jail her argue the punishment was excessive given the context and nature of her comments.
Nigel Farage said at an event in May: “While she should not have said what she said, there were millions of mothers at that moment in time feeling exactly the same way.”
Richard Tice, who visited Connolly in prison, has described her treatment as evidence of a “two-tier justice system”.
Shadow Immigration Minister Chris Philp added: “People have received less time in jail — or no time — for actual physical and sexual assaults.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch also called the sentence “disproportionately severe.”
However, the courts have defended the verdict and sentencing.
Judges at the Court of Appeal said her tweet was not just offensive but “plainly intended to stir up racial hatred” and carried a risk of inciting real-world violence.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “I will always support the independence of our judiciary. We must stand by the rule of law.”
Connolly’s supporters argue she was reacting emotionally to a horrific incident and should not have been criminalised for a single online outburst.
However, her detractors maintain that calls for arson against migrant housing are far beyond acceptable public discourse, regardless of context.
With her release now imminent, the case remains a flashpoint in ongoing discussions about the limits of free expression, the role of social media in amplifying hate, and whether current laws strike the right balance between speech and security.