The wife of a Conservative councillor has been jailed for 31 months after pleading guilty to publishing written material to stir up racial hatred after the Southport stabbings.

Childminder Lucy Connolly published a post on her X account, which she later deleted, that called for "mass deportation now", and for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set fire to, adding: "If that makes me racist, so be it."

She wrote the post on the day three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside, on 29 July.

False information claiming the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker spread online and led to riots and unrest in cities and towns across the UK.

Connolly, from Northampton, later apologised for acting on "false and malicious" information and appeared to delete her X account.

Connolly, who is married to the West Northamptonshire councillor Raymond Connolly, was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to publishing written material to stir up racial hatred.

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