Tory councillor’s wife remanded in custody on racial hatred charges

The wife of a Tory councillor has been remanded in custody on charges of stirring up racial hatred as far-right violence swept the country.

Lucy Connolly was refused bail and will appear at Northampton Crown Court accused of writing tweets calling for attacks on asylum seekers.

Wearing a pink jumper while sat in police custody, Ms Connolly said “yes” when asked by the Nottingham Magistrates’ Court if she understood.

Posted on X, fomerly Twitter, she wrote: “set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b*******” on the day of a stabbing in Southport that left three young children dead.

She continued: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******** for all I care. If that makes me racist, so be it.”

District Judge Rahim Allen-Khimani told Ms Connolly and the court the matter was “too serious for this court to deal with”.

The 41-year-old childminder is married to Conservative West Northamptonshire councillor Raymond Connolly.

She is alleged to have written the social media posts on the same day three young children were killed in a stabbing attack while attending a Taylor Swift themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside.

Soon after the attack, false claims of the suspect’s identity were spread online with some posts speculating he was a Muslim migrant who had arrived in the UK by boat in 2023.

Merseyside Police later identified the suspect as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, the son of Rwandan parents from Cardiff, Wales.

But far-right riots then engulfed the country, with over 700 people arrested and 300 charged in relation to the violent disorder.

In Rotherham, South Yorkshire, a far-right mob tried to set fire to a Holiday Inn Express believed to be housing asylum seekers.

Towns and cities including Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham also saw widespread violence, with people arrested for offences ranging from violent disorder to theft and antisocial behaviour.