Nigel Farage, head of the populist ReformUK party, was scheduled to testify on the state of free speech in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, September 3, in Washington before the United States House Judiciary Committee. Facing Jim Jordan, a close ally of Donald Trump, the British MP, whose ReformUK party was leading in the polls and who already sees himself in Downing Street, was expected to use the occasion to raise the case of Lucy Connolly, viewed by the British far right as one of the principal victims of alleged abuses by Labour prime minister Keir Starmer's government.

The 42-year-old babysitter was sentenced to 31 months in prison in October 2024 for inciting racial hate. On July 29, 2024, the day of the Southport tragedy in which three young girls were stabbed to death by a teenager, she posted a tweet calling for "mass deportations now" and urging her thousands of online followers to "set fire to all the... hotels [housing asylum seekers]." The Northampton resident, married to a Conservative city councilor, was reacting to a rumor – which turned out to be false – blaming the attack on an asylum seeker.

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