A Runcorn resident is behind bars for nearly two and half years – all because of a single tweet.
Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin dropped the bombshell news yesterday morning after a constituent walked into her office with the shocking story. The new MP for Runcorn and Helsby revealed that the unnamed male prisoner is now serving a 28-month sentence “simply for posting an unwise tweet.”
Just heard some truly shocking news in my Runcorn constituency office this morning,” Pochin said. The Reform politician confirmed she’ll visit the jailed man next week to “hear his side of the story.
But this isn’t just about one tweet. It’s about what many are calling Britain’s two-tier justice system – where some get the book thrown at them while others walk free.
The case has drawn immediate comparisons to Lucy Connolly, the Northamptonshire childminder who’s currently serving 31 months for her own social media post. Connolly tweeted after the Southport attack: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the hotels [housing asylum seekers] for all I care”. She deleted it three and a half hours later but it had already been viewed over 300,000 times.
Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice has been visiting Connolly in HMP Peterborough and what he found was disturbing. The 42-year-old mother had bruises all up her arms after being “violently manhandled” by prison officers. She’s been moved to wing housing the most violent prisoners, facing 23-hour lockdown despite having what Tice called an “immaculate record in prison.
She’s a political prisoner,” Tice told GB News after his visit. The MP is so outraged he’s introducing “Lucy’s Law” to Parliament tomorrow – legislation that would let the public petition for reviews of sentences they think are too harsh or lenient.
Sarah Pochin, who sensationally won the Runcorn by-election in May by just six votes, said this latest case “looks like an all too familiar tale of two-tier justice.
The controversy comes as Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp demanded rapper Bob Vylan be arrested after his Glastonbury performance where he led crowds in chanting “death, death to the IDF. Philp said failing to prosecute the musician, whose real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster, would be “a clear example of two-tier justice under Sir Keir Starmer.
Richard Tice was even more blunt: “What he did was far worse than what Lucy Connolly did. His chanting was clearly antisemitic, it was an incitement to violence.”
Yet while ordinary Brits get locked up for tweets, Bob Vylan remains free. The BBC broadcast his performance live to millions before later apologising, saying the comments were “deeply offensive.
Pochin herself has been no stranger to controversy since taking office. Local leaders accused her of stoking fear with claims about houses of multiple occupation in Runcorn being “hotbeds for serious crime. She hit back saying constituents had given her CCTV footage of “late-night knife and drug crime” near HMOs housing asylum seekers.
The former Conservative councillor who was expelled from the party in 2020 before joining Reform, won her seat after Mike Amesbury resigned following assault conviction. It was the closest by-election result in modern British history, overturning Labour’s 14,700 majority from just months earlier.
Lucy Connolly’s husband Ray has had to sell the family car to pay legal bills while she sits in prison. A fundraiser for her has raised over £80,000 with supporters saying she’s paid “an unimaginably terrible price” for “a moment of anger.”
Meanwhile in HMP Peterborough, Connolly told Tice she was denied food after the incident with guards and placed in what he called the “Nutters Wild Wing – full of druggies and violent offenders.”
The disparity in treatment is stark. As one barrister noted, the maximum sentence for affray and violent disorder are less than what Connolly got for her tweet. Perpetrators of far more serious crimes have been given much lower sentences,” James Bogle said.
Tice’s Lucy’s Bill would need 500 signatures on petition to trigger a review by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. “Never underestimate the common sense of the Great British public,” he said.
Details about the Runcorn resident’s specific tweet haven’t been revealed. But with Pochin promising to visit him next week, more information is likely to emerge about another case that’s fueling the two-tier justice debate.
The Prime Minister called Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury chants “appalling hate speech” but so far no arrest. US authorities have already banned the rapper from entering America over his “hateful tirade.” Yet here in Britain, he walks free while others serve years for tweets.
Pochin won her seat promising to tackle these issues head-on. Now she’s got a constituent behind bars whose case could become the latest flashpoint in the battle over free speech and fair justice.
