Tory councillor’s wife jailed over racial hatred tweet ‘to appeal over sentence’

The wife of a Conservative councillor who was jailed for 31 months after an online rant about migrants on the day of the Southport attacks will reportedly appeal against her sentence.

Lucy Connolly, who is married to West Northamptonshire councillor Raymond Connolly, said in an X post on July 29: “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 41-year-old former childminder was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred.

Connolly’s husband said that she plans to appeal against the sentence, which he believes was political, MailOnline reported.

Mr Connolly told the website: “She will be appealing and I will support the judicial process of whatever they decide to do.

“The trouble is, I was always told it wasn’t political but today it seems to be.”

Connolly’s post was viewed 310,000 times in three-and-a-half hours before she deleted it.

She sent a WhatsApp message on August 5 joking that the tweet to her 10,000 followers had “bit me on the arse, lol”.

Connolly, of Northampton, was arrested on August 6 and police officers found other posts on her phone with racist remarks.

She had sent a tweet commenting on a sword attack which read: “I bet my house it was one of these boat invaders.”

Another post sent by Connolly – commenting on a video posted by Tommy Robinson – read “Somalian I guess”, accompanied by a vomiting emoji.

In response to a tweet which said Islamophobia had “no place in society”, Connolly responded: “F*** you, it’s not even a word.”

Connolly also sent a message saying she intended to work her notice period as a childminder “on the sly” despite being de-registered.

Prosecutor Naeem Valli said Connolly posted a message saying she would “play the mental heath card” if she was ever arrested.

Three girls were stabbed and killed at a holiday club in Southport on July 29, sparking nationwide unrest.

The Recorder of Birmingham Judge Melbourne Inman KC, sentencing, said Connolly was “well aware how volatile the situation was”.

The judge said: “As everyone is aware, that volatility led to serious disorder in a number of areas of the country where mindless violence was used to cause injury and damage to wholly innocent members of the public and to their properties.”

He added that Connolly had encouraged activity which threatened or endangered life.