Trump reignites free speech row with Starmer as US says it is ‘monitoring’ Lucy Connolly case

Donald Trump has revived his explosive free speech row with Keir Starmer, with a decision to “monitor” the case of Lucy Connolly, the woman jailed for an online rant about migrants on the day of the Southport attacks.

The US State Department said it was “concerned about infringements on freedom of expression”.

It is examining the treatment of 42-year-old Connolly, the wife of a former Conservative councillor, who was sentenced to 31 months after she made the post on X in the hours after three girls were stabbed and killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

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She told her 9,000 followers: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******* for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them.

“I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist so be it.”

Judges threw out an appeal brought by her legal team last week.

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A spokesman for the US state department told the Telegraph, which first reported its interest: “We can confirm that we are monitoring this matter. The United States supports freedom of expression at home and abroad, and remains concerned about infringements on freedom of expression.”

Mr Trump has sent US officials to meet British pro-life activists over censorship worries, the paper also reported.

British politicians who have hit out at Connolly’s sentence welcomed the White House’s intervention.

Suella Braverman, the former Tory home secretary, said: “Lucy Connolly is effectively a political prisoner and should be freed immediately. She made an ill-judged tweet, soon deleted. That the US is investigating this case is a sad indictment of the dire state of free speech... under Labour.”

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The move marks another escalation in an ongoing row between the White House and Sir Keir, just weeks after they appeared to reset the ‘special relationship’ with a new trade deal.

The row between the two governments erupted during the summer riots that followed the Southport attack, when Trump ally Elon Musk launched a vitriolic social media campaign against Sir Keir and his government as people were arrested over tweets.

It continued when Sir Keir visited the White House for the first time since Mr Trump took power.

The Labour leader clashed with JD Vance on live television in the Oval Office as the vice president claimed that free speech was being undermined in Britain and claimed that the UK’s online safety laws were an attack on US tech giants.

Most recently, the trial of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, for silently praying outside an abortion clinic, has become a major talking point in the US, and Mr Vance has criticised the UK legal system over the case.

Last month, a Washington source told The Independent that Sir Keir must embrace President Trump’s agenda by repealing hate speech laws.

A senior Washington figure, who has provided advice for the administration, claimed that the vice president is “obsessed by the fall of Western civilisation” – including his view that free speech is being eroded in Britain.