Northampton childminder and Conservative councillor’s wife speaks out after going viral with hateful tweet seen by 1.5 million

The tweet, now deleted, called for mass deportation and suggested setting fire to hotels housing immigrants. The tweet is too offensive to be published in full here.

Lucy Connolly, aged 41, said the tweet was posted at 8:30pm on Monday, July 29, in response to the Southport murders. She stated that she deleted it within an hour because “you can’t say that.”

However, one week later, the tweet resurfaced after multiple accounts screenshotted it, and it has been seen by more than 1.5 million people on X, formerly Twitter, alone.

Mrs Connolly, who is married to Ray Connolly - a Conservative councillor for Delapre and Rushmere - has faced heavy criticism online and has since deleted her X account.

Northamptonshire Police said a 41-old-woman from Northamptton was arrested on Tuesday afternoon on 'suspicion of inciting racial hatred and remains in custody'.

On Wednesday morning police told the Chron that the woman has been released on bail pending further enquiries.

Speaking to Chronicle and Echo ahead of her arrest yesterday (Tuesday), she said: “I tweeted it then thought, you can’t tweet that. I do not endorse people going to burn hotels down or anything. I deleted it within an hour. It took a week for someone to reshare it.

“I one hundred per cent regret tweeting that tweet. I do not endorse that. I’m in no way, shape or form racist.”

On the backlash, she said: “Obviously I’m sorry, I’ve quit my job. Ray’s getting a backlash which is not fair. He didn’t tweet that tweet. He had nothing to do with that tweet. He doesn’t necessarily endorse my views. He thinks I’m an idiot but he’s going to support me, he’s my husband, he loves me.

“Is it excusable? No. Did I delete the tweet? Yes. Would I say it again? No.” She added, “No one actually died from my tweet. It was bad but no one died.”

Mrs Connolly added: “I deeply regret it. I’m renowned for speaking first and thinking later. There’s a lot of people that think I’m racist and that’s not the case. I know the truth. My friends and family know the truth.”

Mrs Connolly says she has resigned from her job as a childminder and revoked her child care license.

She said: “I’ve just revoked my licence and given notice to all my parents. It’s really sad. How I feel about politics doesn’t affect how I look after the children I’ve looked after for the past 10 years. They’ve always been safe. I’ve never had any complaints. I wouldn’t dream about talking about politics in front of them. It’s a real shame.”

Childcare.co.uk, where Connolly was registered as an Ofsted approved childminder, issued a statement: “We received information about a highly inappropriate tweet sent by a Twitter user unknown to us. Allegations later emerged that this individual may be an Ofsted registered childminder who had an advert on our platform. We took immediate action to suspend this advertiser. We understand the individual has been reported to both the police and Ofsted.”

Speaking to the Chron, Mr Connolly - vice chair of the adult social care committee at West Northants Council (WNC) - said: "Lucy is not that sort of person. It's totally out of character but I put it down to total shock of the whole thing.

"I feel a bit sad for Lucy because she's a great childminder and a really nice person. She'll have to get another job, she's enjoyed looking after kids for the last ten years.

"I've got a funny feeling that a lot of them will still be popping in.

"It's a shame as I know that's not her and she'd give people her last pound."

Mr Connolly said his wife has cared for children from Somalia, Bangladesh and Nigeria adding: "They are fantastic."

A WNC spokesman said: “We have been made aware of an offensive and incendiary comment on social media posted by an individual who is not a councillor or officer of the Council. This comment is totally deplorable and unacceptable and in no way reflects the views of West Northamptonshire Council.”