Southport From racist tweet to darling of the right

You can't have an opinion, you'll get locked up like that Lucy Connolly.

- Robyn Vinter

Look at her, poor woman, and anybody else who might say the wrong thing," says a shopper in Nuneaton town centre, giving an indication of how incredibly well-known this childminder from Northampton is in some circles.

Connolly, the wife of a former Tory councillor, unexpectedly became a cause célèbre for the far right when she was jailed for calling for "mass deportation" of asylum seekers and to "set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards", after falsely believing the Southport attack on 29 July last year was carried out by a Muslim asylum seeker.

And now Connolly, who described herself as a "political prisoner" when she was released from jail last week, could be catapulted to international fame.

Today, the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, plans to raise her case with key allies of the US president, Donald Trump, in a visit to the US Congress, as "a symbol of Keir Starmer's authoritarian, broken, two-tier Britain".

It comes after the US criticised the Online Safety Act, which aims to regulate online content and will affect social media companies, most of which are headquartered in the US. The country's vice president, JD Vance, said the British government was going down a "very dark path" over free speech.

The White House said in May it was "monitoring" Connolly's case, adding that the US "remains concerned about infringements on freedom of expression".