Lucy Connolly is not Nelson Mandela

The release from prison of Lucy Connolly, the childminder who called for asylum hotels to be burned down at the start of last summer’s riots, is being treated in some quarters as if it were Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom.

Connolly was jailed for 31 months last October after admitting inciting racial hatred with a Twitter post that read: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the bastards for all I care… if that makes me racist so be it.” She has now been released after serving 40% of her sentence.

Connolly, who deleted her post but not before it received 310,000 views, has become a cause célèbre among Britain’s right wing politicians and newspapers. Reform’s Nigel Farage said she was “an important figure as we fight to get free speech back”. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch tweeted, “At last. Her punishment was harsher than the sentences handed down for bricks thrown at police or actual rioting.”

On Friday, Connolly was deemed to be worth five pages in the Daily Mail. On the front page, the paper that normally boasts about being tough on criminals promised readers “The inside story of Lucy Connolly’s prison torment”. Below that was a story headlined “All-time high for asylum claims”. We can only hope that no-one set fire to their newspapers in disgust.

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Inside was a lengthy and breathless news lead (“A friend told the Mail that Mrs Connolly was looking forward to a glass of Whispering Angel rosé, her favourite wine, to celebrate”). It included Mr Connolly saying, contrary to reports that his wife had had a tough time in custody, she has actually “coped relatively well.”

He added: “The only person who hasn’t is our 13-year-old daughter. She has found it very difficult not having her mum at home. So well done Keir Starmer for making it so difficult for a 13-year-old girl. Let’s give him a pat on the back.”

It is either emotion or the fact that Mr Connolly is a former Conservative county councillor that is blinding him to an obvious fact – the person responsible for his wife’s year in jail was not the prime minister but Lucy Connolly herself.

Inside, there were photos of Connolly walking her dogs, plus a typically silly comment piece by clueless Brexiteer Lord Daniel Hannan. “Lucy Connolly was a political prisoner,” he began, before moaning that she “was denied day release, even to celebrate her daughter’s 13th birthday” – as if prisoners are often let out to party with their kids.

A far more sensible and nuanced piece by Jan Moir appeared on pages 6 and 7, with the Mail columnist arguing with the sentence (“Was this woman really such a danger to the public that she had to spend a year behind bars?”) but agreeing that Connolly was “a racist issuing a clear incitement to race-based violence” who gave the judge “little choice but to send to prison.” This is not likely to be a view shared by many Mail readers.

Connolly also made the Sun’s front page on Friday morning with the headline “Mum’s home”, and a subdeck which read: “Riot-tweet Lucy free after YEAR in jail away from her daughter”. There was no room to mention the mums and daughters in the asylum hotels that Lucy Connolly wanted to be set on fire.

Oddly, Connolly’s release did not make the front page of the Daily Telegraph, whose Allison Pearson visited her in jail and campaigned for her to be set free. Thoughts that the paper was finally thinking twice about making her a heroine were dashed on Friday afternoon, when a photo of Connolly and Pearson appeared on social media.

By Friday evening, a video of Pearson interviewing Connolly was on the Telegraph website. Asked, “were you Keir Starmer’s political prisoner”, Connolly said that he was – adding that Starmer “maybe needs to look at what the laws are in this country.”

Where will the right wing martyrdom of Lucy Connolly end? She is already expected to meet with the far right MP Rupert Lowe soon, but might we even see her paraded like a trophy at the Tory or Reform conferences this autumn? Will she become a figurehead of a free speech campaign, or even consider a run for office?

It might be best for Mrs Connolly and her family if they are allowed to return to a normal life, allowing them time to reflect quietly and move forward. But politicians and newspapers that want to normalise hate and promote division are not going to let that happen.