Well, it's the day that President Trump arrives in the UK for his second state visit
And of course, he's the head of an administration who have expressed some very grave concerns about free speech in the United Kingdom
Now, this debate slowly had been going on for the last few years with the rise of non-crime hate incidents, the police knocking on people's doors
But there was one particular incident that led to an explosion of debate around this issue
It was, of course, what happened in that appalling July day in 2024 when those three young girls were murdered in Southport
And within a week, we had the Prime Minister being called two-tier care
And we had a series of arrests and imprisonments made. And ever since that time, this debate has been very, very live
On top of that, we have the Online Safety Act that came into being
And I've been involved in this argument myself, both here in the UK and, of course, across in the US
But there's one name that comes out of all of this, and it is, of course, Lucy Connolly
As you well know, she was sentenced to 31 months in prison for a tweet that she put out on that day
What we're going to do here on GB News is find out who is Lucy Connolly
What were her motivations for that tweet? And what was it like to face a 31-month prison sentence for one tweet
Lucy joins me in the studio. There's an awful lot of things that have been said about you
Some of them nice, some of them not so nice, as you well know
From what I know, you live in the heart of England, married to Ray, a Conservative councillor
a mother, a childminder over the course of the last 10 years
Have you yourself been on X, Twitter as it was? Have you been very political in the past
Yeah, I mean, I get involved in the politics and a good old debate on X
I'm known for that. But always never personally attack anybody, you know, always keep to the facts
I accept that, you know, we're never going to agree. and that's absolutely fine. But, you know, I don't wish harm on anyone that doesn't agree
with my opinions and my political opinions, as has been wished on me and yourself
And, you know, that's wrong. No, and I mean, in fact, in your work as a childminder
you know, a Nigerian GP whose daughter you cared for described you as the kindest British person I know
So that was quite a testament. These, I mean, we were all, you know, deeply shocked
by what happened on that day. and it was later on in that day at 8.30 in the evening
that you put out this particular post. Mass deportations now. Set fire to all the effing hotels full of the s for all I care
While you're at it, take the treacherous government and politicians with them
I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure
If that makes me racist, so be it. And that what you put out at 8 that evening Clearly what you said there was intemperate because what I found interesting was that three and a half hours later
having taken the dog for a walk, you deleted the message. Yeah, I did, because as I've said before, it wasn't my finest moment
and I know that was an awful thing to say and it wasn't the right thing to say. So, you know, when I wrote that tweet, I was just so emotionally charged
and upset and just, I still to this day can't quite believe
that somebody's dropped their children off at a dance class, a Taylor Swift dance class, and never got to pick them up
And the worst part of it is I do know how that feels and it's just beyond comprehension that that happened
And then you begin to think, am I going to drop my child off
at gymnastics next week, et cetera? Is some nutter going to go in there and do the same thing
Is it safe? Can I let them go? And all this crazy stuff goes through your head
And it just sent me into, for want of a better word, an overdrive, really
I was just... And you had lost a child yourself. I had lost a child. And it was just almost like sheer panic
And I can't even describe it. I was just so... And still am
You obviously realised a few hours later that what you'd done was wrong. So, you know, I'd calmed down and I thought to myself
well, gosh, Lucy, you can't put that... Take that down. Of which I did. Which you did
I didn't need to be prompted to take that down. I didn't need anyone to tell me that that was the wrong thing to say
You knew. I didn't engage in any of the comments and I just took it down
Yeah, yeah. And yet, within days, you've been arrested. You're charged with a category A1 offence, an imprisonable offence
The bit that I don't understand is you pleaded guilty. Yeah. Were you bullied into that in some way
I wouldn't use the word bullied, but they'd remanded me. So when you're remanded, they've got you, so to speak
They refused me bail twice. The only alternative left was to go to a high court bail
at a cost of £10,000, and I honestly believe that they wouldn't have granted me bail
They're making it quite clear that they wanted me remanded and they wanted me to serve a customer
So you could have stayed on remand until the trial came up, which could have been...
A year, two years, you know. You're looking at the average, people are waiting for a year minimum
for a trial at the moment with a backlog in the court. So even had I have gone not guilty and gone to trial
there's a massive chance I'd have been still sitting there today in prison
Or I'd have done the same amount of time. I just feel like they had me over a barrel, really
and that, you know, as we've discussed before, the legal advice was, you know, you're best to go guilty
you'll get your credit. And wasn't the fact that you deleted this tweet just a few hours later
I mean, wasn't that taken into mitigation at all? They didn't care. There was lots of mitigating factors
They had lots of previous tweets that they'd been given from my Twitter
where I was condoning racism, where I was condoning violence. There was a tweet
because obviously the tweet that I made was made on the day that those children were murdered
And obviously the riots didn't start them for probably a good week afterwards. And I tweeted
as soon as they started rioting in the Southport, they kicked off in Southport and they were throwing bricks
and I was just like, oh goodness, please stop this. This is not the way No one going to listen to you Obviously they had that tweet That wasn taken into consideration And it seemed that they really wanted you because quite remarkable that the head of the Crown Prosecution Special Crime and Counterterrorism Unit
released a statement saying, During a police interview, Lucy Connolly stated she had strong views on immigration
told officers she did not like immigrants and claimed that children were not safe from them
Of which I didn't say. And it's not about liking the immigrants, is it? I'm sure most of them are very nice
So you're saying that what a senior figure in the prosecution service said is not true
It's not true, and I can prove that. I stand by that. They've got a transcript of my interview in the police
I gave a full and frank interview, as advised by the solicitor that was there
At no point in the interview, did she kick me under the table or stop the interview or anything like that
31 months you're sentenced to, and we'll come to prison in a minute
Last week, we saw the assassination of Charlie Kirk, somebody who held very strong view, Christian conservative views
had strong views on abortion, strong views on trans rights, other things like that
which has opened up this massive debate on free speech. And I went to Washington a couple of weeks ago
and appeared before the House Judiciary Committee. I wanted you to come with me, but your terms of release wouldn't allow it
No. I'm on licence conditions that forbid me to leave in the country at the minute
So, yeah. So where do we draw the line, Lucy? Was, I mean, do you think in retrospect that what you said was insightful
I suppose it could have, yeah, it could have been seen as insightful
But then there's no evidence to suggest anyone acted on that. And like I said, it should have been taken into consideration
that I did take the tweet down and I was remorseful. And I've never, ever..
See, the funny thing is, it wasn't until Southport that the Prime Minister was called two-tier care
We started talking about two-tier policing, two-tier sentencing. We see it all the time, don't we? Every day at the minute
Well, I think we do, because I had death threats last week on TikTok in particular
to which the police have said that that didn't meet the bar of acceptability
We're all over the place, aren't we? So what does meet the bar then? So me sending one tweet, bearing in mind I'd gone 42 years of my life
without ever being in trouble or breaking the law or putting such a tweet on X or, you know, that instantly hits the bar
But somebody, even after everything that's been going on in the past 12 months in the UK
surely we should all know better than to put out tweets and TikToks
Abuse is fine, it seems to me. So-and-so, we think this about you, that about you
I think you've got to live with that. Well, it's horrific. It's horrific that anybody would wish harm on harm, just death, harm
Harm on you, harm on your family, because they don't agree with your views. And that's where your tweet, to be fair, I think did go over the line of what's acceptable
But you recognised that yourself and withdrew it. And there should have been some allowance made for that
Well, it's a debate that's going to go on and on and on. Prison. What's prison like
Oh, what's prison like? It's like nothing you'll ever experience ever in your life before, again
And you know like it interesting It very interesting It very sad You know as I spoke about you know there a lot of people that shouldn be in there And I and for me it changed my opinion on the system because I was that person that was like well you know they all in prison
They've been to the courts. They're guilty. They should be in prison. Actually, the reality is very different. You know, you've got I mean, I'm talking about the women's estate here
I can't comment on the men's estate because obviously I wasn't there. really, really sad cases
And you just think, women are factually going to get longer for the same crime as what a man... Really
Absolutely. It's almost like they have this attitude of, well, you're a woman, you're a wife and you're a mother
and you should know better. And I see that inside the prison as well
with the way prison officers behave and the way male prison officers behave
within a women's prison. And it's like, well, you know, they're men, aren't they? So it's OK
but if it's you because you're a woman, you should know better. That's what I witnessed
That's what I witnessed in the system. Did you see attempts at rehabilitation in prison
No. There's no time. There's no money and there's no time. With the best will in the world
you can't recruit enough prison officers at the moment. So they're just keeping the peace
and making sure everybody's safe and okay. That's all they've got time to do
And obviously, like with everything else in this Gone World Mad, there's paperwork for everything, boxes to tick for everything
you know but I think certainly in Peterborough the waiting list when you first go in for mental health
is like three, four hundredths on the list I mean I take the view that there's about 10% of prisoners
commit 50% of the crime and I think the three strikes and you're out thing that America introduced would work
but I do agree that if people go in for a short prison sentence for the first time they might come out worse than they went in
that's kind of what you're saying well absolutely especially on the male side You know, they send, like, gang members in, and they're just making bigger gang members and almost like joining forces
Well, Izzy, we've spent just a quarter of an hour on this, going through your story
We could talk for hours about it. You seem to be happy and optimistic
Yeah, I mean, I refuse to be bitter. I'm back with my family. I've got an amazing family, my daughter and my husband, and then my friends and family have been supportive
You know, this, as I've said before, this is not the worst thing I've ever been through in my life. I've been through far worse
and all I can do now, you know, I did my time
and all I can do now is try and, you know, make a positive out of this
and push for prison reform. So what does Lucy Connolly do next? Well, as I said, I'd really love to work with you guys on prison reform
because we all know you're getting in next, you know. I think I'm fairly confident that the next party in will be the reform party
and, you know, I personally welcome that because we need some massive change
We can't keep doing the same thing and, you know, expecting a different result. Things aren't working in this country
The prison system definitely isn't working. So we need to have a different, you know, attack at it and fix it
I mean, it can't be fixed overnight. We've got a lot to do, but we can certainly have a good go
Thank you. Well, folks, that was Lucy Connolly. It is the most extraordinary story how somebody living a very straightforward
relatively normal life with all its ups and downs is suddenly thrust into a level of fame
that she couldn't have even believed of. I just hope and pray that we continue to have this proper debate about free speech
about what is acceptable, about what is not. And I think we're going to have to rethink many of the laws we've got in this country