Woman jailed over post 'not racist' and 'loved' African and Asian heritage kids she cared for, husband says as appeal quashed

The wife of a Conservative councillor has lost an appeal against her 31-month prison sentence for an online rant about migrants on the day of the Southport attacks.

The judgment handed down by Lord Justice Holroyd at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday said there was "no arguable basis" that Lucy Connolly's original sentence was "manifestly excessive". "The application for leave to appeal against sentence therefore fails and is refused," it said.

In a statement, her husband Raymond Connolly, who lost his seat as a Tory West Northamptonshire district councillor in May but remains on the town council, insisted his wife is "not a racist" and that she "loved" children from diverse backgrounds while she worked as a childminder. Lucy Connolly was arrested on 6 August 2024 after calling for "mass deportation now" in an X post on 29 July, which also said hotels housing asylum seekers should be set on fire.

"If that makes me racist so be it," she wrote. The post was viewed 310,000 times in the three-and-a-half hours before Connolly deleted it.

She was sentenced to 31 months in prison at Birmingham Crown Court last October, after pleading guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred. She was ordered to serve 40% of the sentence in prison before being released on licence.

Read more from Sky NewsTommy Robinson due for prison releaseSecond man appears in court over Starmer firesPolice pepper sprayed man, 92, at care home Connolly shared her X post on the same day three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport last year. False information claiming the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker spread online, leading to riots and unrest in multiple locations across the UK.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years in January after pleading guilty to murdering Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar in Southport that day. Connolly, from Northampton, later apologised for acting on "false and malicious" information.

Reacting to the appeal decision, her husband described it as "shocking and unfair.