‘Two-tier Britain’: how Lucy Connolly became a cause célèbre for the right

Woman jailed for social media post after Southport attack has been seized on as a symbol that free speech is supposedly failing in the UK

“You can’t have an opinion, you’ll get locked up like that Lucy Connolly,” says a shopper in Nuneaton town centre, giving an indication of how well-known this childminder from Northampton is in some circles.

Connolly, the wife of a Tory councillor, unexpectedly became a cause célèbre for the far right last year when she was jailed for posting “set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards” on social media, after falsely believing the Southport attack was carried out by a Muslim asylum seeker.