A notorious bare-knuckled fighter has been recalled to jail just weeks after teaming up with Liz Truss in a bizarre video promoting his new whisky.
Convicted thug Dougie Joyce, from Manchester, appeared alongside the former Prime Minister in a clip filmed as she made a visit to Scunthorpe United’s ground.
Joyce was seen proudly handing her a bottle before saying his catchphrase, Just remember, Dougie Joyce loves ya’ – before the ex-PM held it up and responded: ‘Liz Truss loves you.’
But MailOnline can now reveal he has been brought back behind bars, having been out on licence at the time of the video.
It is understood that his recall is linked to the promotional stunt featuring Ms Truss.
A spokesman for the politician, whose tenure in Number 10 lasted just 49 days in 2022, has said of her invovement: ‘She attended the event to support the people working to regenerate the town and Scunthorpe FC.’
Joyce is a boxer and bare-knuckle fighter from a traveller background who once boasted he was ‘the next Tyson Fury’ – but has been repeatedly jailed for violence offences, including in May last year.
Now one source from Manchester has said of his prison recall: ‘He must have pushed his luck too far with the Liz Truss video.’
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: ‘Offenders released on licence are kept under close supervision and subject to strict conditions for the remainder of their sentence. If they break the rules, we will send them back to prison.’
Joyce had shared photographs of his appearance alongside Ms Truss on his Instagram page, writing: ‘It was a great honour to have former Prime Minister as a special guest.
‘Having her there truly meant a lot and added a distinguished touch to the occasion.’
Sources close to the former Prime Minister have insisted it was not a paid appearance.
Joyce has been claiming to have turned over a new leaf, insisting he was devoting himself to charity work after being released from prison.
He was previously jailed for 19 months in November 2023 after CCTV emerged showing him battering a pensioner in a Manchester pub.
Burly Joyce had felled the old man inside the pub on Thomas Street, in the heart of Manchester’s trendy Northern Quarter.
A shocking video of the attack showed the traveller and businessman knock the recently widowed elderly man off his chair with three savage blows, before flooring him again after he got to his feet.
The injuries to the man’s face were exacerbated by the large golden pyramid ring he was wearing.
At the time of Joyce’s sentencing, Det Con Natalie Hollows said: ‘Joyce is an aggressive and violent man.’
And he was imprisoned again in May last year after finding himself involved in a violent brawl with a rival family at a wake.
He and his brother Tom, 27, were handed the sentences for violent disorder by Manchester Crown Court after an incident at the Vine pub in the city’s Collyhurst district.
Chaos erupted in the pub for about half-an-hour as members of the Joyce and Doherty family clashed in the latest episode of a long-running feud.
The two families had attended the establishment as part of a wake following the death of two young men who were part of the traveller community on October 2, 2020.
Two members of the Doherty family were taken to hospital with ‘significant injuries’, one of whom Tom had struck on the head with a smashed beer bottle.
Dougie was handed a 13-month jail term, while Tom was sentenced to 22 months in prison.
Dougie Joyce has previously starred in an Amazon series about his family, including his former air hostess wife Holly, and was once filmed fighting with rival reality star Paddy Doherty.
The couple got married in July 2022 in an extravagant £60,000 ceremony in Gorton Monastery that included four Rolls-Royces, a £12,000 dress and champagne on tap.
Joyce had wanted to arrive in a helicopter but the venue would not allow him to park the aircraft in its car park.
He also ran several successful business – including a bare-knuckle boxing promotion company, a bespoke furniture range and activewear companies as well as his alcohol brand Joyce’s Irish Whiskey.
Under current rules, freed convicts can be kept behind bars for the rest of their sentence if they are recalled to prison.
But the Government’s justice reform plans propose a new a standard 28-day ‘recall’ period for released offenders who are locked up again for breaking the rules – even those who commit new offences.
The new policy is forecast to free up 1,400 spaces in prisons amid the overcrowding crisis – and officials have said if no action was taken, they would run out of space by November.
But Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been accused of presiding over a ‘recipe for the breakdown of law and order’, while victims’ groups voiced alarm.
There were 13,600 recalled prisoners behind bars in March – with about a fifth being sent back to jail because they have committed fresh crimes.
Ms Mahmood has said the 28-day recall period would apply to criminals serving sentences of between one and four years.
She said last month: ‘The consequences of failing to act are unthinkable. If our prisons overflow, courts cancel trials, police halt their arrests, crime goes unpunished and we reach a total breakdown of law and order.’
But the Conservatives’ Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick accused Labour of offering ‘an invitation for dangerous criminals to cause carnage’.
He added: ‘By telling prisoners that they will never serve their full sentence, even if they reoffend, the Justice Secretary has removed an important deterrent.
