Despite Connolly pleading guilty for her vile social media post, some sections of the right-wing press have tried to portray her as some sort of martyr.
The right-wing media is being condemned for trying to make a martyr out of Lucy Connolly, after her release from prison for inciting racial violence.
On Thursday, Connolly was released from HMP Peterborough after serving 40% of her 31-month prison sentence for inciting racial violence. Connolly pleaded guilty to sharing a tweet on the day of the Southport stabbings, calling for “mass deportations” and urging people to “set fire” to asylum hotels.
On 29 July 2024, Axel Rudakubana killed three young girls and injured ten others at a Taylor Swift–themed yoga and dance workshop.
Far-right figures then spread misinformation online claiming Rudakubana was an asylum seeker who had recently travelled to the UK on a small boat. Riots across the country broke out the day after.
Despite Connolly pleading guilty for her vile social media post, some sections of the right-wing press have tried to portray her as some sort of martyr.
The Daily Mail was condemned for trying to turn Connolly into a ‘people’s hero’, and portrayed Connolly as a ‘middle-class mother’, with David Yelland posting on X: “And so the paper of law and order, the Daily Mail, like the Tory leadership, seeks to turn Lucy Connolly into a people’s hero… we sink, day by day, towards a national nastiness and hate which is being normalised by people who should know better.”
Gerry Hassan wrote on X: “The Daily Mail, which used to pride itself as being a paper of law and order, along with the Tory leadership, Farage & the batshit Telegraph & GB News, all seeking to turn Lucy Connolly into some kind of martyr.”
Meanwhile, the Telegraph decided to run a piece about criminals who had been spared prison while Connolly served her time behind bars, in a bid to try to claim that there was a double standard at play.
Sangita Myska posted: “Lucy Connolly was not a hero, nor was she a political prisoner. She is, however, a case study in the psychological disorder of fake victimhood created and manipulated by politicians with a far right agenda.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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