Britain is becoming a police state under Sir Keir Starmer, Boris Johnson has said after judges rejected a bid by a mother jailed for a tweet about the Southport attacks to have her sentence reduced.
Lucy Connolly, a former childminder and the wife of a Conservative councillor, was jailed for 31 months in October after pleading guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred.
Three Court of Appeal judges threw out the 42-year-old’s application on Tuesday morning, meaning she will not be released before August.
Mr Johnson branded the ruling a “propaganda gift for Vladimir Putin”.
The former prime minister told the Daily Mail: “Starmer’s Britain is losing its reputation for free speech and turning into a police state, where we must all learn to fear the knock on the door simply for something we say.
“The UK police are now making over 10,000 arrests every year for online comment, more than the police in Russia itself, and this judgment is yet another propaganda gift for Vladimir Putin.”
Earlier, Ray Connolly said he was “heartbroken” that his wife’s appeal was not upheld, adding: “I think the system wanted to make an example of Lucy so other people would be scared to say things about immigration.”
Connolly’s lawyers had argued that she had not fully understood what she was pleading guilty to, and also that the original judge had failed to give enough weight to various mitigating factors including the welfare of her 12-year-old daughter.
Mr Connolly said: “I am heartbroken that my wife Lucy’s appeal was not upheld by the Court of Appeal. It feels shocking and unfair. The 284 days of separation have been very hard, particularly on our 12-year-old girl.
“Lucy posted one nasty tweet when she was upset and angry about three little girls who were brutally murdered in Southport. She realised the tweet was wrong and deleted it within four hours. That did not mean Lucy was a ‘far-Right thug’, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer claimed.
“My wife Lucy is a good person and not a racist. As a childminder, she took care of small children of African and Asian heritage – they loved Lucy as she loved them.
“My wife has paid a very high price for making a mistake, and today the court has shown her no mercy. Lucy got more time in jail for one tweet than some paedophiles and domestic abusers get.
“Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood says she will release 40,000 prisoners, some of them dangerous men, on tag. Lucy has not been allowed out on tag and she has been denied leave to see our child, who is struggling.
“Today, the court had the opportunity to reduce her cruelly long and disproportionate sentence, but they refused. That feels like two-tier justice. We will continue to pursue every possible avenue to seek justice and to bring Lucy home to us.”
The judgment was handed down moments after Tommy Robinson, the far-Right activist, had his 18-month sentence for contempt of court reduced by four months at the High Court.
It also came days after Ms Mahmood had announced plans to release more than 1,000 inmates early. Under the move, intended to tackle the prisons overcrowding crisis, offenders serving one to four years who are recalled to jail for breaching their licences will be released after 28 days.
Last July, hours after Axel Rudakubana went on a knife rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport, murdering three little girls, Connolly went on social media platform X to express her outrage.
She posted: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f—ing hotels full of the b——s for all I care, while you’re at it, take the treacherous government politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these [Southport] families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it.”
Connolly, who lost her son Harry when he was 19 months old, and cares for her sick husband, deleted the post less than four hours later – but not before it had been viewed 310,000 times.
She was arrested on Aug 6 following widespread riots across the country. Police officers who searched her devices found other posts commenting on the reaction to her social media post. In one message, she joked that she would “play the mental health card” if arrested.
Connolly, who has no previous convictions, also sent another tweet commenting on a sword attack, which read: “I bet my house it was one of these boat invaders.”
But there were also posts condemning the riots. In one, written the day after widespread disorder, she wrote: “FFS, I get they’re angry. I’m f—ing raging, however, this is playing right into their hands. I do not want civil unrest on our streets. Tommy Robinson is not going to say but this is not going to get anyone anywhere. Protests yes but not riots.”
The following day, she wrote another message that read: “Last night was not protesting, it was rioting. People are playing right into the hands of the establishment and the media. We need people to come together intelligently and articulately, not riots.”
Giving evidence via videolink from HMP Drake Hall in Staffordshire, Connolly, wearing a floral dress, was asked how she felt when she posted the offending tweet.
She said: “Really angry, really upset and really distressed that those children had died and those parents would have to live a lifetime of grief. Really angry and upset that this had been allowed to happen.
“It sent me into a state of anxiety. It made me worry about my children. I thought, I know how they [the parents] feel and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. It just made me so angry.”
Her barrister, Adam King, asked: “Did you intend anyone to set fire to any asylum hotels?”
Connolly replied: “Absolutely not.”
Mr King asked: “Did you intend anyone to murder any politicians?”
Again, she answered: “Absolutely not.”
The Court of Appeal judges said they did not accept that the original 31-month sentence was “manifestly excessive”.
They also said they did not accept the argument that the offending tweet had been “no more than an expression of emotion”. Their ruling went on: “The words of the tweet are on their face an incitement to serious violence.”
The judges also said they did not accept that Connolly had entered her guilty plea without fully understanding what it entailed.
Referring to the mitigating factors, the ruling said: “We of course have every sympathy with the applicant over the death of her son, and we can understand why she remains angry about the circumstances of his death.
“We can therefore accept that the shocking events in Southport had an impact on her which went beyond that felt by many others. But as the judge rightly said, she did not post a message of support and sympathy to the victims of the Southport attack and the bereaved.
“Nor, we would add, did she post a message of hostility confined to the perpetrator of the Southport attack. She chose instead to incite serious violence against large numbers of persons. The applicant’s personal history cannot significantly reduce her culpability for that serious offence.
“For the reasons which we have explained, there is no arguable basis on which it could be said that the sentence imposed by the judge was manifestly excessive. The application for leave to appeal against sentence therefore fails and is refused.”
Lord Toby Young, the general secretary of the Free Speech Union, said: “This is terribly disappointing. How can it be right for Lucy to have been condemned to spend more than two and a half years in jail for a single tweet when members of grooming gangs who plead guilty to the sexual exploitation of children get lower sentences?
“Lucy should be at home with her 12 year-old daughter and husband, not rotting in jail.”
Sir Keir Starmer signalled he did not believe free speech was dead in the UK when asked about Connolly’s case.
The Prime Minister told broadcasters: “I’m not across the details of the particular case, but let me give you the principles that I would apply.
“Firstly, I’m strongly in favour of free speech. We’ve had free speech in this country for a very, very long time, and we protect it fiercely.
“I’m equally, though, against incitement to violence against other people. That has long been an offence in our country, and rightly so.
“So, as I say, I don’t know the details of this, but free speech: yes; incitement to violence: no.”
The length of Connolly’s sentence shocked many, and politicians including Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, Liz Truss, the former prime minister, and Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, called for her to be released.
Mrs Braverman said: “Lucy Connolly is a victim of a politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain. She should not be in prison.
“Yes, her comments were crass, tasteless and vile, and I disagree with them. Lucy deleted them quickly and apologised for her error of judgment. That is why the sentence of 31 months custody for her first-time offence seems excessive. She has deliberately been made an example of to intimidate others into silence.”
Ms Truss said: “Lucy Connolly should be released immediately and reunited with her family. The severity of her sentence is completely unjustifiable and a shocking example of two-tier justice which now prevails in Britain. We are now suffering the consequences of a system that has been captured by Leftist ideology.”
She also won the backing of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and the owner of X, who accused Britain of operating a “two-tier” justice system.
Downing Street would not comment directly on Connolly’s case, but said individuals posting illegal content online should face “robust law enforcement”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I can’t comment on individual cases – that’s obviously one for the court.
“More broadly, the Government is absolutely committed to freedom of speech. But, as the Prime Minister has said previously, individuals posting illegal content should know that that will be met with robust law enforcement.”
Since being jailed, Connolly has been denied the right to spend temporary leave at home with her husband, who is suffering from a bone marrow complaint, and her young daughter.
She has been eligible for release on temporary licence since last November, based on her prison time served. This form of release is open to inmates as a way to “rebuild family ties” and allows for up to two overnight home stays a month.
But despite winning credit for good behaviour, so far she has not been allowed out of prison to visit her family.
Support from Trump ally
Charlie Kirk, a Maga influencer and ally of Donald Trump, was speaking at the Oxford Union on Tuesday night. Mr Kirk said Lucy Connolly’s case proved free speech in the UK was dead.
He told the Oxford Union: “As of today, Lucy Connolly is going to jail for two and a half years in this country for a social media post that she apologised for and deleted… That is not a free speech battle at all.
“You should be allowed to say outrageous things. You should be allowed to say contrarian things. Free speech is a birthright that you gave us, and you guys decided not to codify it and now it’s – poof! – it is basically gone.”
Speaking to GB News, Mr Kirk said he would raise Connolly’s case with the Trump administration, adding: “I’m going to bring this up to Marco Rubio [the US secretary of state]. I’m going to send him a text.”
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