The wife of a Tory councillor has been arrested for racial hatred after saying rioters should set fire to all the migrant hotels. 

Lucie Connolly, who works as a childminder in Northamptonshire, concluded her vile tweet with the phrase: 'if that makes me racist, so be it.'

She has since deleted her post and blamed it on 'a moment of extreme outrage and emotion' when she was acting on 'false and malicious' information.

Her husband Raymond, who is vice chair of the committee on adult social care at West Northamptonshire Council, responded to the BBC by saying his wife is not racist - because she looks after 'Somalian and Bangladeshi kids'.

Northamptonshire Police said that a 41-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after reports of a hate crime regarding a social media post.

Posting on Twitter, Connolly said: '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.'

The message was posted just hours after the death of three girls, aged six, seven and nine, at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport.

The horror knife rampage sparked s slew of misinformation that spread like wildfire online fuelled by Russian-linked fake news.

Online childcare community Childcare.co.uk have since confirmed that they have suspended Connolly following the tweet, after allegations emerged she had an advert on their platform.

Several posts remain up on Connolly's account - including one where she says she has 'seen noone trying to organise or spread any kind of hate or discrimination'.

She continues: 'Imagine if two tier Keir told me I had to stay in my home due to riots. That threat is very real right now.'

It comes after violent riots have exploded across several cities including Manchester, Liverpool, Plymouth and Birmingham following the Southport knife rampage which claimed the lives of three young girls and left many others injured.

And just days ago gangs of masked thugs descended on hotels believed to be housing migrants and asylum seekers, with many starting fire to the buildings as they threw petrol bombs and projectiles at police.

Approached by the BBC, Cllr Connolly defended his wife, saying that his wife had made one 'stupid, spur of the moment tweet out of frustration and quickly deleted it'.

He continued: 'She's a good person and she's not racist. She's got Somalian and Bangladeshi kids she looks after and she loves them like they're her own'.

Responding on social media today, Ms Connolly said: I regret and apologise for a recent post that I made. Acting on information that I now know to be false and malicious, and in a moment of extreme outrage and emotion, I posted words that I realise were wrong in every way.

'I am someone who cares enormously about children, and the similarity between those beautiful children who were so brutally attacked and my own daughter overwhelmed me with horror but I should not have expressed that horror in the way that I did.

'This has been a valuable lesson for me, in realising how wrong and inaccurate things appearing on social media can be, and I will never ever react in this way again.'