West Northants Tory councillor Raymond Connolly spoke outside of Northampton Crown Court after his wife Lucy pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred with a tweet published on X in July.
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00:00Just tell me a bit about how you're feeling after that.
00:05I'm kind of relieved actually, it's all over.
00:10These last few months have been quite traumatic for Lucy and the children.
00:22The stuff I hear on the TV is not really Lucy.
00:27She's probably the opposite of what she's having to admit to.
00:35But she knows that she's overstepped the mark and there's consequences for it.
00:42So hopefully she'll be able to learn from this and move on with her life.
00:49What has she said about it to you now reflecting on what happened and what she did?
00:54It's just a moment of an upset housewife really.
01:04Just seeing children in the reports with all the misinformation.
01:11And then just got dragged into it and obviously she conflicts.
01:16Which she did for a couple of hours after she put the link up.
01:20But obviously it came back on a week or so later.
01:24And her husband's a Tory councillor and here we are today.
01:29What's been the effect then on your role as a councillor?
01:33I've had really good support from my fellow councillors. It's not affected my role.
01:38I've had messages from support from residents to say not to resign.
01:43Even though I've had messages to say to, they've said not to.
01:49So I'll leave it to the next elections and not let them resign me.
01:55Clearly quite emotional. It must have been a bizarre time for you.
02:00What sort of impact has it had on reflecting on what she said and the impact her words could have had?
02:06When I see those words spoken all the time.
02:13But obviously the likelihood of taking it on board.
02:19And obviously it was quite upsetting times for people.
02:23So I'm sure she regrets it.
02:26Does she regret it?
02:28Does she regret making a statement or does she regret being called?
02:34She regrets making the statement. She took it off after a couple of hours.
02:39Because she realised, obviously with the internet and it was all so much misinformation.
02:48There was many accusations, different names coming up.
02:52And then she realised that it was, she'd made a mistake.
02:59Does she accept that the tweet was racist?
03:02I don't think she's not that person. I'm not too sure really.
03:13All I know is she's not that person. She's probably the opposite to that actually.
03:19She really is.
03:21Why do you think she tweeted it then?
03:23She has, because we lost our own son.
03:31Any children who might get harmed or anything, she will kick off.
03:36That's it really.
03:38And obviously that's come up and obviously she'll just keep it.
03:42But it's not just, I know obviously that situation, it was a racist thing.
03:47But there was non-racial children where she's kicked off her belt.
03:50Which I won't mention their names because I don't want to bring their parents into it.
03:55But English children where they've been let down and she has kicked off about that as well.
04:02And how many children do you have?
04:04I have three.
04:06Three children.
04:08Three alive.
04:10How is your wife feeling about the judge's sentencing?
04:15I haven't spoke to her about it but obviously she just feels because of the Tory tag.
04:22She's like the, she expects that because it's just the Tory tag for her.
04:31What she thinks, whether she changes her mind over the next few days, I don't know.
04:36But that's what she's thinking.
04:37I mean, she'll cope with whatever they throw at her.
04:44She's got a strong resilience and hopefully she'll come back a better person.
04:51Is that the way on your mind though? The fact that the Tory connection?
04:57Only because like, I mean like I just see everything seems to be Tory councillor's wife, Tory councillor's wife, Tory councillor's wife.
05:05She's just a middle aged mother but it's Tory councillor's wife.
05:10And that's the, I mean I've got emails sent to me, they're not like going on about Lucy, it's like Tory scum, Tory scum.
05:18It's to me. What's that got to do with Lucy's situation?
05:22I mean I can understand if they were putting something about Lucy but it's just Tory scum.
05:27But listen, I've done my best for you and hopefully you enjoy the rest of your day.
05:35Can I just get one picture of you?