Tommy Robinson

Jan 12

**DOB:** 27 November 1982

**Nationality:** British

**Location:** London, United Kingdom
**Ideology/Affiliation:** Far-right/White Supremacism/Anti-Muslim/Anti-immigrant

**Type of Leader:** Co-founder and former leader of the English Defence League (EDL)/Former political advisor to former UKIP leader Gerard Batten

Current Status: British far-right, anti-Islam activist

Biography

Tommy Robinson (real name, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon)is a British right-wing, anti-Muslim activist who has long been involved in far-right politics in the United Kingdom and abroad. His first official move was back in 2004 when he joined the far-right political party British National Party (BNP). Robinson was also a member of the organisation United Peoples of Luton, which was created in response to a March 2009 protest against Royal Anglian Regiment servicemen returning from the Afghan War being attacked by UK-based Islamist groups Al-Muhajiroun and Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah.

In 2009, Robinson co-founded and led the English Defence League (EDL) with his cousin Kevin Carroll as deputy leader. Robinson claims that he was inspired to establish the EDL after reading a newspaper report about local Islamists seeking to recruit men outside a bakery in Luton to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan. Additionally, he formed the European Defence League, a network of organisations identical to the EDL that operate across Europe. Although Robinson clearly stated from the very beginning that the EDL was “against the rise of radical Islam” in Europe and that its members weren't against Islam, the movement has a long history of criminal records against Islam and the Muslim communities in the UK and abroad. In October 2013, Robinson and ten other senior members at EDL left the group because of concerns about the dangers of right-wing extremism, as stated by himself.

In 2015, Robinson returned to anti-Islam protests by co-founding a British branch of Pegida (Pegida UK) - a German anti-immigrant organisation established in Dresden during the European migrant crisis.

In September 2018, Robinson announced that he will be stepping in as a personal advisor to the UK Independence Party’s (UKIP) leader Gerard Batten in November 2018. In response to Robinson’s appointment, several senior UKIP members, including eight MEPs, withdrew from the party. Two of the eight departing MEPs were previous party leaders. One was the Scottish head of UKIP, and another was Nigel Farage, who said that Robinson and his allies introduced “scuffles and violence” into the party and that “many have criminal records, some pretty serious.”

In April 2019, Robinson stated that he would run as an independent candidate in the May 2019 European Parliament election in North West England. According to reports, Anne Marie Waters (click here to visit profile), head of the far-right For Britain party, guaranteed Robinson her party’s backing. In the aftermath of the elections, Robinson said that seeking to secure a seat was a “near impossible task” and claimed that he was unable to get across his message on social media sites after being banned by the social media giants and subsequently demanded a second vote.

Robinson has been jailed multiple times during the past couple of years for inciting hatred and was permanently banned from Twitter in March 2018 for breaking the platform’s policy and regulations, followed by YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat who also barred him from their services in 2019, claiming violations of their hate speech policies.

Banned

None

147.5K followers

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Tommy Robinson (inactive)

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Evidence of Hate Speech/Incitement:

July 2021: Tommy Robinson has been forced to pay a Syrian refugee £100,000 in retaliation for defaming him on Facebook. This case dates back to 2018 when Robinson posted an online response to a viral video showing Jamal Hijazi being attacked by classmates at his school in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Robinson falsely claimed in two follow-up clips watched by at least 950,000 people and shared 25,000 times that the youngster had previously attacked “young English girls” at his school.

March 2018: Robinson appeared in court to support Mark Meechan, who was charged with a hate crime after posting a video of a dog mimicking Nazi salutes in response to the slogans “gas the Jews” and “Sieg Heil.” Meechan was found guilty because the video was “antisemitic and racist in essence,” exacerbated by religious prejudice.

January 2018: It was proved in court that Darren Osborne, the perpetrator of the 2017 Finsbury Park mosque terrorist incident in London, received emails from Robinson, claiming that “there is a nation within a nation forming just beneath the surface of the UK. It is a nation built on hatred, on violence, and on Islam.” Another email from Robinson to Osborne read: “Dear Darren, you know about the terrible crimes committed against [name redacted] of Sunderland,” it read. “Police let the suspects go… why? It is because the suspects are refugees from Syria and Iraq?"

June 2017: Tommy Robinson’s appearance on Good Morning Britain generated controversy as he referred to the Quran as a “violent and cursed book” the day after the Finsbury Park terror incident took place. Piers Morgan called Mr Robinson a “bigoted lunatic” and told him to “show some damn respect for people’s religious beliefs” while holding up the Quran.