Lucy Connolly addressed members of Reform UK over lunch in Thurrock, Essex, last weekend. What struck me while listening to her is that her imprisonment for a vile, misjudged social-media post, sent in the immediate aftermath of the Southport stabbings last year, was only one small part of her punishment. Having been released after serving more than 12 months behind bars, Lucy and her family are still being punished. Shockingly, it has now emerged that her 13-year-old daughter has been denied a school place, apparently for no other reason than her mother’s reputation.
Despite soon deleting the post she sent in the heat of the moment back in July 2024, when she first heard that three young girls had been slaughtered at a dance class, Connolly received a 31-month prison sentence for inciting racial hatred, serving 72 days on remand before her trial, and then 10 months in HMP Peterborough. This meant she missed over a year of her young daughter, Edie’s, life, including her birthday, Christmas, a school sports day and several parents’ evenings. Worse, she missed the daily interactions with her child – from sharing a joke to being there to offer reassurance or a hug.
Right from the moment she was arrested in July last year, amid the Labour government’s harsh crackdown on speech after Southport, Connolly was treated differently. Judges usually take into consideration mitigating factors, like a woman’s role as primary carer for her children, the impact of imprisonment on the convict’s dependents, and the circumstances of their offence. Yet none of these seemed to be taken into account when it came to Connolly. She was not only denied bail ahead of her trial, after she was found guilty, she was also given what is believed to be the longest-ever prison sentence for a social-media post.
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