Lucy Connolly has told the Reform UK conference that she would “love” to work with the party in the future, receiving cheers from the audience as she revealed she voted for them at the last election.
The former childminder and wife of a Conservative councillor was jailed for stirring up racial hatred against asylum seekers in the aftermath of the Southport murders last year, and was released last month.
Asked on the main stage of the Birmingham conference on Saturday what she wanted to do going forward, Connolly said: “I’d really love to use my experience to work with, hopefully, Reform in the future.”
The party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, welcomed her comments in his speech immediately after her live interview for a podcast.
Mr Tice said: “It’s wonderful to see her back with us and to hear her direct telling her story.
“I think that she has a huge opportunity to help Reform and help the cause of free speech.”
She had entered the stage to massive applause, with many in the audience standing up to clap as she walked on, and spoke about her experience with the police, courts and prison.
She was described by her interviewer and supporter Allison Pearson as a “political prisoner”.
In May, a legal challenge against the length of her sentence was dismissed by Lord Justice Holroyde, who said: “There is no arguable basis on which it could be said that the sentence imposed by the judge was manifestly excessive.”
Ms Connolly was asked about the “distortion of police evidence” in her case, with interviewers referencing a police statement passed to the Crown Prosecution Service which said she “doesn’t like immigrants, she thinks they’re a danger to children”.
She responded: “I was interviewed by two police officers and I explained myself and I made it quite clear that I didn’t have a problem with immigration, only illegal, unchecked immigration.
“I explained about a situation when I was in Liverpool and my friend and I got accosted by two guys that were staying in one of the hotels – and I was just trying to make the point that I’m big enough and ugly enough to back them off, we’re quite brave me and my friend, but not everybody is.
“If it was a young girl, if that was my teenage daughter, I wouldn’t be very happy about that.
“My point to the police was, well, why are you not there? If you know they’re there, accosting people at three o’clock in the morning, where’s the police presence?
“And I said unchecked immigration is a danger to my child and everyone else’s child.”
