Errol Musk, father of tech billionaire Elon Musk, has strongly criticized the imprisonment of Lucy Connolly, calling the decision “crazy” and expressing disbelief at the state of affairs in England under Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Lucy Connolly, who used to work with children and is married to a former local politician, has been serving a 31-month sentence for inciting racial hatred because of X (formerly Twitter) posts. Fundraiser for UK Woman Jailed Over Tweet Passes $100,000 – Newsweek The 42-year-old mother was jailed after posting a tweet calling for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire, posted hours after the Southport knife attack that killed three young girls in July 2024.
“The jailing of that young woman makes no sense to me at all. I mean, I just can’t believe it. I can’t believe that this is England,” Musk told The People’s Channel. “I can’t believe a lot of the things that I read that Starmer and company are doing. It’s hard to believe. The excuses for doing these things are so flimsy that there’s no way a person can accept them. It is just crazy.”
The Case Details
In the post on 29 July, which she later deleted, she said: “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.” Lucy Connolly: Ex-councillor’s wife loses appeal against sentence for Southport racial hatred tweet | ITV News Anglia The tweet was posted hours after 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana killed three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.
She deleted the post three-and-a-half hours later and posted an apology several days later. She was then arrested on 6 August. Fundraiser for UK Woman Jailed Over Tweet Passes $100,000 – Newsweek Police also found other messages containing racist remarks on her seized phone.
Connolly pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred under the Public Order Act 1986, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years. She was sentenced to 31 months in October 2024, and lost her appeal against a 31-month prison sentence Lucy Connolly: Ex-councillor’s wife loses appeal against sentence for Southport racial hatred tweet | ITV News Angliain May 2025.
Personal Tragedy and Context
Connolly knew about the pain of losing a child as she and her husband Ray, a Conservative local councillor, had lost their 19-month-old son, Harry, in 2011. Jailing Lucy Connolly Is the Real Crime, Not Her Angry Tweet ━ The European Conservative During her appeal, she said that when she initially wrote the post she was “really angry, really upset” and “distressed that those children had died” and that she knew how the parents felt. Lucy Connolly: Ex-councillor’s wife loses appeal against sentence for Southport racial hatred tweet | ITV News Anglia
Connolly described herself as a ‘ridiculously overprotective’ mother to her own 11-year-old daughter, and the news from Southport sent her into a panic. Lucy Connolly is in prison because of her politics | The Spectator
Growing International Attention
The case has attracted significant international attention, with Errol Musk’s intervention adding to criticism from prominent British figures. Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, now says her sentence was ‘excessive’ and that she is the victim of a ‘politicised two-tier justice system’; former PM Liz Truss wants her ‘released immediately. The punishment of Lucy Connolly | The Spectator
A fundraiser set up for a UK woman who was jailed over her social media activity has raised over $100,000. Fundraiser for UK Woman Jailed Over Tweet Passes $100,000 – Newsweek Her husband Raymond has had to sell their family car and other possessions to pay legal fees.
Critics argue the sentence is disproportionate, particularly when compared to other criminal cases. In Britain we often show leniency to habitual criminals, while cracking down on those who violate progressive shibboleths and our draconian speech laws. Indeed, Lucy will serve more time in prison than some individuals convicted in the Telford grooming gang scandal. Jailing Lucy Connolly Is the Real Crime, Not Her Angry Tweet ━ The European Conservative
In an era when we are releasing prisoners because of extreme overcrowding, including those guilty of serious violent offences, this is shameful. Jailing Lucy Connolly Is the Real Crime, Not Her Angry Tweet ━ The European Conservative Connolly has now spent over 288 days in prison, unable to be with her husband and 12-year-old daughter.
Legal Analysis
The offence required either intent or having regard to all the circumstances racial hatred is likely to be stirred up thereby. Understanding the sentence of Lucy Connolly By pleading guilty, Connolly accepted the prosecution’s case that she intended to incite racial hatred, though she later claimed during her appeal that she didn’t understand this implication when she entered her plea.
The sentencing judge applied guidelines that placed her offense in a high culpability category due to the intention to incite serious violence. The sentencing judge imposed a sentence of three and a half years—the starting point plus six months. Because of the guilty plea and by reason of her not forcing and losing a Newton hearing, that 42-month sentence was then reduced to 31 months. Understanding the sentence of Lucy Connolly
Broader Implications
Errol Musk’s intervention highlights growing international concern about free speech restrictions in the UK. With the White House already putting pressure on the UK over free-speech concerns, that the case has now reached Elon Musk will surely be setting nerves jangling in Downing Street. The punishment of Lucy Connolly | The Spectator
The case has become emblematic of debates about two-tier justice, freedom of expression, and the proportionality of sentences for online speech offenses in the UK. As The state treats expressions of majority nationalism as an existential threat in a way it doesn’t any other worldview, including Irish republicanism or even Islamism and this explains the extraordinarily harsh way it polices online discourse on the right Lucy Connolly is in prison because of her politics | The Spectator, according to critics.
With prominent international figures now weighing in, the Connolly case appears set to remain a flashpoint in ongoing debates about free speech, justice, and the policing of online expression in modern Britain.
Image credit: Errol Musk on Anything Goes With James English in 2025 by James English, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
