Nigel Farage has not seen eye-to-eye with his former colleague Rupert Lowe about much lately, but the outrage sparked by the imprisonment of Lucy Connolly has them both on the same page. The wife of a Conservative councillor was jailed last year over an offensive tweet about the riots of last summer – and last week, her appeal against her sentence was quashed. Now, in a London speech, the Reform UK leader has condemned Connolly’s incarceration, with the Clacton MP telling reporters: ‘I want to make it absolutely clear: Lucy Connolly should not be in prison.’
The 42-year-old mother was sentenced to 31 months imprisonment in October after posting on social media about the riots sparked by the horrific Southport murders. Taking to Twitter at the time, the wife of Northampton councillor Ray Connolly fumed:
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 and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it.
It’s quite the rant – but whether it deserves over two years of prison time is another matter. Farage’s intervention comes after ex-Reform MP Lowe tabled an early day motion calling for a review of Connolly’s sentence to ‘ensure that limited prison space is prioritised for dangerous and violent offenders’. In a move that surprised onlookers, left-winger Jeremy Corbyn was the first politician to register his support for the motion – although no sooner had Lowe taken to Twitter to praise the former Labour leader, Jezza withdrew his signature. Sir Gavin Williamson was next to back the EDM, alongside Tory colleagues Peter Bedford and Andrew Rosindell. The EDM has even received support from the Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, Mary Glindon, in a move that broke ranks with her party leader Sir Keir Starmer, who has defended Connolly’s sentence. Oo er.
The case has continued to attract criticism and ex-Tory PM Boris Johnson has this week taken to the pages of the Daily Mail to berate Sir Keir for turning Britain into a police state. He lamented to the paper: ‘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.’ And even President Donald Trump’s curiosity has been piqued by the full thing, with the White House noting it was ‘monitoring’ the matter over freedom of expression concerns. Talk about an escalation, eh?
Farage has not gone so far as to add his name to his former colleague’s motion, however – with the spat between the pair over Lowe’s conduct continuing to rumble on. Will he overlook their ongoing dispute to back Lowe’s call for clarity over jail sentences for non-violent offenders? Stay tuned…
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