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Kemi Badenoch gets rinsed on social media over Lucy Connolly tweet

Social media users have been rinsing Kemi Badenoch after a social media post supporting the release of Lucy Connolly.

She said:

Lucy Connolly finally returns home to her family today. At last.

Her punishment was harsher than the sentences handed down for bricks thrown at police or actual rioting.

At that time, after Southport, Keir Starmer branded all protesters ‘far-right’ and called for “fast-track prosecutions”.

Days later, Lucy was charged with stirring up racial hatred – an offence that doesn’t even require intent to incite violence. Why exactly did the Attorney General think that was in the public interest?

Meanwhile, former Labour councillor Ricky Jones called for protestors to have their throats slit. Charged with encouraging violent disorder, he pleaded not guilty and was acquitted by a jury who saw his words as a disgusting remark made in the heat of the moment, not a call to action.

Juries are a cornerstone of justice, but we shouldn’t have to rely on them to protect basic freedoms.

Protecting people from words should not be given greater weight in law than public safety. If the law does this, then the law itself is broken – and it’s time Parliament looked again at the Public Order Act.

Lucy Connolly: inciting racial hatred

The courts jailed Lucy Connolly for 31 months after she pleaded guilty to distributing material with the intention of stirring up racial hatred. They reduced the sentence from 41 months because she pleaded guilty.

As the BBC reported:

Lucy Connolly, 42, whose husband serves on Northampton Town Council, pleaded guilty in September after posting the expletive-ridden message on X the day three girls were stabbed in Southport in July 2024.

Connolly, from Northampton, called for “mass deportation now” and urged her followers on X to “set fire” to hotels housing asylum seekers.

As The Canary’s Rachel Swindon pointed out:

What if Mrs Connolly was instead a British Muslim, calling for hotels full of white “bastards” to be burned to the ground?

It was down to Larry the Cat to inform Badenoch that Connolly did, in fact, plead guilty and only served 40% of her sentence.

Additionally, Connolly had a history of posting racist remarks on social media.

Skipping over the details

So much for the party of law and order.

Of course, Badenoch conveniently skipped over these details. For the leader of the opposition who gave us the racist Rwanda deportation plan, it’s no surprise Kemi came out batting for the vile white supremacist inciting anti-migrant violence.

Don’t injure yourself, Kemi – jumping on all those bandwagons.

Inaccurate comparison

Additionally, Badenoch compared Connolly to Ricky Jones, the Labour councillor for Dartford, who went on trial for encouraging violent disorder. In August 2024, he attended a counter-protest outside an immigration centre in Walthamstow, after being told not to attend. According to The Secret Barrister:

He was recorded addressing a crowd of “tens of thousands” through a public address system, making reference to “disgusting Nazi fascists”, shouting: “We need to cut their throats and get rid of them all”, drawing his finger along his throat. The video clip found its way onto social media and attracted widespread attention, leading to Mr Jones’ suspension from the Labour Party and his prosecution.

Jones pleaded not guilty. Then, the jury did not find Jones guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is the standard needed for a criminal court to prosecute. This means the jury acquitted him.

Therefore, Badenoch’s comparison of the two is completely inaccurate. Connolly pleaded guilty – and therefore did not have a trial by jury.

Clearly, Badenoch is attempting to claw back a couple of Reform voters.

If Badenoch had wanted to make a keen observation and a valid point, she could have highlighted how certain politicians also fanned the flames of the racist riots – and should not be above the law.

Of course, that might have been a little too much like genuine introspection for a Tory with an atrocious streak of vicious racism. Ultimately, Badenoch wasn’t THAT concerned about Connolly that she’d actually incriminate the despicable members of her own party who incited hatred.

Feature image via 

By HG

This post was originally published on Canary.