Lucy Connolly has been left with "bruises" after being "dragged up three flights of stairs" while serving her prison sentence, Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice has said.
Tice, who visited Connolly at HMP Peterborough, said the former childminder has been "stripped of privileges by prison officers".
The mother-of-two was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison last year for a tweet she posted in the wake of the Southport murders, where she called for "mass deportation now", adding "set fire to all the... hotels [housing asylum seekers]...for all I care...If that makes me racist, so be it."
Tice said: "Lucy’s Bill has arisen because of the two-tier justice that now exists in the United Kingdom. This has made Lucy Connolly a political prisoner.
Lucy Connolly was jailed for 31 months for a tweet about last year's Southport attacksPA "Whilst not interfering with the judicial system or the judgement, in cases of clearly wrong sentencing, following on from a judgement, having a triple-check sanity review mechanism, triggered by 500 members of the public of any sentence passed, is a sensible safeguard.
"I visited Lucy Connolly in prison on Tuesday (June 24), and whilst she appears to be a model prisoner, generally, with good conditions, I was very concerned that last Thursday, for no apparent reason, she was brutally forced to the ground by many prison officers, tightly handcuffed and then dragged up three flights of stairs.
"The bruising is still significant five days on. She was then put on a totally inappropriate wing for her situation.
"Lucy has not been granted any rights to temporary leave on compassionate grounds, and regrettably, she is the victim of political intervention in our justice system."
Connolly was told she would be placed in a 23-hour-a-day lockdown in an area which also held the most violent prisoners.
When she challenged the decision to move her, she was allegedly restrained by officers with handcuffs to take her to her new cell.
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Richard Tice speaking to the media outside HMP Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
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It comes as Tice is set to present a bill introducing a new "backstop" against overly harsh sentences following the imprisonment of Lucy Connolly.
The bill, nicknamed "Lucy's Bill", would allow members of the public to mount mass appeals against punishments they deem to be too severe.
Tice wants to introduce the bill to protect against cases where judges "get it wrong" by providing a new avenue for the wider population to request a second opinion.
The proposals will be brought forward tomorrow in a Ten Minute Rule Bill, a variant of a Private Member’s Bill.
While it is very rare for a bill introduced in this way to become law, it is regarded as an opportunity for MPs to raise awareness of an issue and gauge support from their colleagues in the Commons as well as remain on the official Parliamentary record.
HMP Peterborough where Connolly is servicing
PA
Tice said the bill would provide "democratic safeguards against overzealous two-tier justice imposed against particular individuals, especially who have effectively become political prisoners".
He added: "I want to reassure Lucy that many of us as MPs, we’re not forgetting about her, we’re continuing to battle for her, and that, in a sense, this could be part of her legacy."
James Bogle BL, a barrister of 10 King’s Bench Walk, also said: "The sentence in the case of Lucy Connolly was manifestly excessive.
"The maximum sentence for affray and violent disorder are less than the maximum for Lucy’s offence. That is irrational. Perpetrators of far more serious crimes have been given much lower sentences than Lucy.
"Worse, hers was described as being at the more serious end of the scale as if she had been out in the streets actively encouraging a mob to threaten life rather than sending a mere tweet.
"When sentences begin to defy the common sense of the ordinary person, then the criminal justice system risks falling into serious disrepute."
GB News has contacted the Ministry of Justice for a comment.
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