The wife of a Tory councillor who was jailed over her tweets in the aftermath of the Southport murders is being "mistreated" in prison, Reform deputy leader Richard Tice has said.
Lucy Connolly was jailed last year for 31 months for inciting racial hatred in the wake of the Southport murders.
After visiting Mrs Connolly at HMP Peterborough on Tuesday, Mr Tice told The Sun: “Lucy has bruises on her wrists, five days on from being violently manhandled by a group of aggressive guards who forced her into a wing riddled with drugs and violent women.
“Two prisoners have died there in the last 12 months”, the MP for Boston and Skegness said.
“She was supposed to be in the enhanced wing for good behaviour. Something very wrong has occurred.”
Mrs Connolly was jailed after posting on X: "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," in the wake of the Southport stabbings.
She launched a bid against her sentence but this was thrown out by Court of Appeal judges in May.
The sentence has been criticised by some politicians for being too harsh.
Mr Tice is introducing "Lucy's Bill", which would allow people to mount mass appeals against punishments they deem to be too severe or lenient.
He said he hoped the Bill he will be introducing would enable a "treble check" on sentence and prevent what has ben dubbed a "two-tier" justice system.
The Bill will be introduced to the House of Commons on Wednesday and would mean campaigners could get the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to reconsider cases deemed unduly harsh.
"The whole point about justice is it has to have the confidence of the British people," Mr Tice said.
"We're not calling into dispute the brilliance of our legal system and our judges.
"What we're just saying is, sometimes, however good you are, you might not quite get it right, and it's not unreasonable to have a treble check of the sentence itself."
He said that the number of people required to sign the petition could be up for debate.
He added: "To get 500 signatures on a form is not an easy thing. You've got to explain it to 500 people, and they've got to be convinced.
"You can always say at the margin something might be abused. That doesn't mean you shouldn't talk about it."
When asked why the public should get a say in legal cases, Mr Tice said: "Never underestimate the common sense of the Great British public and their gut instinct for where something is fair or not fair. We're all human, judges can get things wrong, and sometimes there can be political pressure.
"In this situation, we had a prime minister that effectively ordered the judges to give very strict sentences, and people have very serious concerns about that.
"There's a lot of concern amongst the British public that Lucy Connolly and others were the victims of two-tier justice."
Under the Bill, campaigners would need to get 500 people to sign a petition against a punishment handed down in Crown Court.
Those cases would be considered for eight weeks by the CCRC, which may refer them to the Court of Appeal for a decision.
Mr Tice said of choosing the CCRC over the Attorney General: "The Attorney General is a busy person and ultimately a political person, whereas the (CCRC) should not be that.
"It could potentially be extra work but it wouldn't be very many cases a year. It might be an opportunity for the CCRC to say 'We actually need to relook at our competences, how we operate, our procedures. Are we getting it right? Can we improve ourselves?'.
He did not say how much the proposal could cost the taxpayer but added: "I want to have the debate and the discussion and give the British people the ability to have ever more confidence in our justice system.
"If you lose that confidence, if you lose that trust, that's a very bad place to be."
