1. Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, is a British anti-Islam campaigner and one of the UK's most prominent far-right activists.
138 Facts About Tommy Robinson
1. 2.
Tommy Robinson was a member of the British National Party, a British fascist political party, from 2004 to 2005.
3.
Tommy Robinson co-founded the English Defence League in 2009 and led it until October 2013.
4.
The Tommy Robinson from whom Yaxley took his name was a prominent member of the Luton Town MIGs, a football hooligan crew which follows Luton Town.
5.
Tommy Robinson has used the names Andrew McMaster, Paul Harris, Wayne King, and Stephen Lennon.
6.
Tommy Robinson married Jenna Vowles in 2011 after about 10 years together, and is the father of their three children.
7.
Tommy Robinson founded the English Defence League in 2009 with his cousin Kevin Carroll, and became its leader with Carroll as deputy leader.
8.
Tommy Robinson stated that he was prompted to found the EDL after reading a newspaper article about local Islamists attempting to recruit men to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan outside a bakery in Luton.
9.
Tommy Robinson described the EDL, shortly after it was founded, as being "against the rise of radical Islam".
10.
Tommy Robinson founded the European Defence League, a co-ordination of groups similar to the EDL operating in different European countries.
11.
Tommy Robinson said that he was assaulted on 22 December 2011.
12.
Tommy Robinson said this occurred after stopping his car due to another car flashing its lights at him, and that a group of three men attacked and beat him, until they were stopped by the arrival of a "good Samaritan".
13.
In 2011 Tommy Robinson was convicted of using "threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour" during a fight between supporters of Luton Town and Newport County in Luton the previous year.
14.
Tommy Robinson was arrested again after an EDL demonstration in Tower Hamlets in September 2011 for breach of bail conditions, as he had been banned from attending that demonstration.
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On 29 September 2011, Tommy Robinson was convicted of common assault after headbutting a fellow EDL member at a rally in Blackburn in April that year.
16.
Tommy Robinson was sentenced to 12 weeks' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.
17.
On 8 November 2011, Tommy Robinson held a protest on the rooftop of the FIFA headquarters in Zurich against FIFA's ruling that the England national football team could not wear a Remembrance poppy symbol on their shirts.
18.
In 2012, Tommy Robinson announced that he had joined the British Freedom Party.
19.
Tommy Robinson was appointed as its joint vice-chairman along with Carroll after the EDL and the BFP agreed an electoral pact in 2011.
20.
However, on 11 October 2012, Tommy Robinson resigned from the BFP to concentrate on EDL activities.
21.
Tommy Robinson said that he had been considering leaving for a long time because of concerns over the "dangers of far-right extremism".
22.
Tommy Robinson said that he would now give evidence to the police to help in their investigation of racists within the EDL, adding that "his future work would involve taking on radicalism on all fronts".
23.
Tommy Robinson spoke at the Oxford Union on 26 November 2014.
24.
Tommy Robinson told the audience he was not allowed to talk about certain issues because he was out on prison licence.
25.
Tommy Robinson announced the creation of a "British chapter" of Pegida in December 2015.
26.
Tommy Robinson said that alcohol and fighting would not be permitted because "it's too serious now for that stuff", and told The Daily Telegraph that a mass demonstration would take place across Europe on 6 February 2016.
27.
On 14 February 2016, Tommy Robinson was attacked and treated at a hospital after leaving a nightclub in Essex.
28.
Tommy Robinson wrote an autobiography, Enemy of the State, which he self-published in 2015.
29.
Tommy Robinson travelled to watch UEFA Euro 2016 in France and demonstrated with a T-shirt and English flag ridiculing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
30.
Tommy Robinson claimed he had been victimised, and complaints were submitted to Cambridge Police.
31.
In March 2019, at Peterborough County Court, Tommy Robinson accused Cambridgeshire Constabulary of harassment, direct discrimination, humiliation, stress, anxiety, and breach of human rights, namely the right to family life, right to freedom of conscience or religion, and freedom of expression.
32.
The claims related to police behaviour around Tommy Robinson possibly being issued a section 35 dispersal order at the pub after the match in 2016.
33.
Tommy Robinson was a correspondent for Rebel News, a Canadian far-right website.
34.
Tommy Robinson's second self-published book, Mohammed's Koran: Why Muslims Kill For Islam was co-authored with Peter McLoughlin and released in 2017.
35.
Tommy Robinson was involved in a fist fight at Royal Ascot later in June 2017, for which Piers Morgan criticised him on Twitter.
36.
In March 2018, Tommy Robinson attended court in support of Mark Meechan, who had been charged for a hate crime after posting footage online of a dog performing Nazi salutes in response to the phrases "gas the Jews" and "Sieg Heil".
37.
In October 2018, further controversy arose after Tommy Robinson posted a joint photo with two dozen young British Army "recruits" as he described them.
38.
Tommy Robinson posted on his Facebook page a video of the occasion in which the soldiers allegedly cheered him shouting his name.
39.
Tommy Robinson's attention-seeking is cover for divisive anti-Muslim hatred that is causing real harm to individuals, communities, and society in general.
40.
Tommy Robinson visited the town despite her family asking him to stay away.
41.
In January 2019, Tommy Robinson livestreamed himself causing a lockdown, by leading a group that surrounded a library where the Glasgow South MP, Stewart McDonald, was holding a 'surgery'.
42.
On 23 February 2019, Tommy Robinson held a rally in MediaCityUK outside BBC's Salford, Greater Manchester offices to protest against BBC's investigative current affairs programme Panorama and its presenter John Sweeney.
43.
Tommy Robinson said the aim of the protest was to make a stand "against the corrupt media" and called for the BBC licence fee to be scrapped.
44.
On 4 March 2019, at 11pm, Tommy Robinson arrived uninvited outside the home of a journalist who covers far-right issues and attempted to intimidate him.
45.
Tommy Robinson revealed the journalist's address on a livestream and threatened to reveal the addresses of other journalists.
46.
Tommy Robinson left after police arrived, but returned at 5am.
47.
Tommy Robinson said this was an act of retaliation for having been served a legal letter at his parents-in-law's home, an act which he said was videoed and which he described as harassment.
48.
Tommy Robinson gave no indication that the journalist he attempted to intimidate had been involved in that alleged act.
49.
In January 2020, Tommy Robinson was given the Sappho Award by the Danish Free Press Society at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen.
50.
On 1 November 2020, Tommy Robinson was arrested at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London, for breaking COVID-19 rules.
51.
Tommy Robinson's tweet mocking people for responding to terrorism with the phrase "don't look back in anger" was found in the note at the scene of the attack.
52.
The host, Piers Morgan, accused him of "stirring up hatred like a bigoted lunatic", and Tommy Robinson's appearance drew a number of complaints to Ofcom.
53.
Commander Dean Haydon of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command said that online material from Tommy Robinson had played a "significant role" in how Osborne was radicalised and "brainwashed".
54.
Mark Rowley, the outgoing assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the UK's most senior counter-terrorism officer said that there is "no doubt" that material posted online by people including Tommy Robinson drove the Finsbury Park terror attacker to targeting Muslims.
55.
In February 2020, Tommy Robinson travelled to Russia, visiting Moscow and St Petersburg for a series of talks, meetings, and media appearances.
56.
Tommy Robinson joined the far-right and fascist British National Party, then led by Nick Griffin, in 2004.
57.
In September 2018, Tommy Robinson expressed a desire to join the UK Independence Party.
58.
UKIP's rules deny membership to those who have been part of extreme right-wing groups in the past: these preclude Tommy Robinson from joining, as he founded the English Defence League, had been a member of the British National Party, and has had ties with the British Freedom Party.
59.
UKIP leader Batten supported Tommy Robinson joining the party, while the UKIP Welsh Assembly members Michelle Brown and David Rowlands said they opposed it.
60.
On 25 April 2019, Tommy Robinson announced that he would be an independent candidate in the May 2019 European Parliament election in North West England.
61.
Tommy Robinson finished eighth in the election with 38,908 votes, widely described as "humiliating" in the media, and losing his deposit.
62.
Tommy Robinson said he had faced a "near impossible task" in attempting to win a seat, as he was "unable to get across his message on social media platforms" after being banned by almost all such platforms.
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Tommy Robinson's reaction was to mock the idea of a People's Vote by joking about having another election.
64.
Tommy Robinson had previously served at least three separate custodial sentences: in 2005 for assault, in 2012 for using false travel documents, and in 2014 for mortgage fraud.
65.
Tommy Robinson received sentences of 12 months and 3 months, which were served concurrently.
66.
In September 2011, at Preston Magistrates' Court, Tommy Robinson was convicted of assault for headbutting a man in Blackburn on 2 April 2011.
67.
In July 2011, at Luton and South Bedfordshire Magistrates' Court, Tommy Robinson was convicted of using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour, for leading a group of Luton Town FC supporters into a brawl involving 100 people in Luton on 24 August 2010.
68.
Tommy Robinson was sentenced to a 12-month community rehabilitation order, 150 hours of unpaid work and given a three-year football banning order.
69.
In October 2012, Tommy Robinson was arrested and held on the charge of having entered the United States illegally.
70.
Tommy Robinson had used a passport in the name of Andrew McMaster to board a Virgin Atlantic flight from London Heathrow to New York City.
71.
Tommy Robinson had been banned from entering the US due to his criminal record.
72.
Tommy Robinson stayed one night and returned to the UK the following day using his own passport.
73.
Tommy Robinson pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court after using a passport that did not belong to him to travel to the United States in September 2012.
74.
Tommy Robinson was sentenced in January 2013 to 10 months' imprisonment.
75.
In November 2012, Tommy Robinson was charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by misrepresentation in relation to a mortgage application, along with five other defendants.
76.
Tommy Robinson pleaded guilty to two charges and in January 2014 was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.
77.
Tommy Robinson was attacked by several fellow prisoners in HM Prison Woodhill.
78.
Shortly after this incident, Tommy Robinson was moved to HM Prison Winchester.
79.
Tommy Robinson was due to talk to the Oxford Union in October 2014, but was recalled to prison before the event for breaching the terms of his licence.
80.
Sometime after 10 pm on 17 January 2021, Tommy Robinson went to the home of journalist Lizzie Dearden after she had asked for his comment for a story she was writing about allegations that he had misused financial donations from his supporters.
81.
Tommy Robinson falsely accused her partner of being a paedophile and threatened to return every night.
82.
Tommy Robinson was arrested over the incident, and further published photographs of the journalist's partner on his Telegram channel stating that "serious allegations" had been made about the partner.
83.
On 13 October 2021, Tommy Robinson was convicted at Westminster Magistrates' Court of stalking the couple, and was given a five-year ban from contacting them or referring to them.
84.
On 27 November 2023 Tommy Robinson was charged under a Section 35 direction excluding a person from an area, after he refused to leave the area of the March Against Antisemitism in London the previous day, which he said he had attended as a journalist.
85.
Tommy Robinson was handcuffed and led away, after being subjected to PAVA spray from a police officer.
86.
On 22 January 2024, at Westminster Magistrates' Court, Tommy Robinson denied the Section 35 charge, claiming he attended the march as a journalist.
87.
The Metropolitan Police claimed Tommy Robinson "resisted as officers attempted to put him in handcuffs" and "was warned repeatedly before PAVA spray was used".
88.
On 10 May 2017, Tommy Robinson was charged with contempt of court, and convicted.
89.
Tommy Robinson had filmed inside Canterbury Crown Court and posted prejudicial statements calling the defendants "Muslim child rapists" while the jury was deliberating.
90.
The court later wrongly stated that Tommy Robinson had been sentenced to three months' imprisonment, suspended for 18 months and entered that incorrect result in the court records.
91.
Tommy Robinson was again found to be in contempt of court at Leeds, again wrongly given a sentence of imprisonment and the Canterbury suspended sentence activated.
92.
Tommy Robinson was later released following a successful challenge to the court's sentencing procedure.
93.
On 25 May 2018, Tommy Robinson was arrested for a breach of the peace while live streaming outside Leeds Crown Court during the trial of the Huddersfield grooming gang on which reporting restrictions had been ordered by the judge.
94.
The reporting restriction with regard to Tommy Robinson was lifted on 29 May 2018, following a challenge by journalists.
95.
The media reported that Tommy Robinson had admitted contempt of court by publishing information that could prejudice an ongoing trial, and had been jailed for 13 months.
96.
Tommy Robinson's lawyer said that Tommy Robinson felt "deep regret" after comprehending the potential consequences of his behaviour.
97.
Tommy Robinson attracted sympathy from several right-wing politicians in Europe, including the Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders and the member of the German Bundestag for the far-right Alternative for Germany Petr Bystron.
98.
Caolan Robertson, then Tommy Robinson's cameraman, spread false information substantially exaggerating the Muslim population of a prison to which Tommy Robinson was moved.
99.
Tommy Robinson lodged an appeal initially against the proceedings at Leeds but much later against convictions both at Canterbury and Leeds.
100.
Tommy Robinson said that he had not admitted the charges at Leeds nor had he been given a chance to apologise.
101.
Tommy Robinson's lawyer said that his initial contempt hearing was flawed; the details of the charge were not clear.
102.
On 2 August 2018, Tommy Robinson was interviewed on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
103.
Tommy Robinson said that he was initially put in HM Prison Hull, where he was treated well.
104.
Tommy Robinson was then transferred to HM Prison Onley, where, he claimed, he was severely mistreated, including with 'solitary confinement'.
105.
Also in October 2018, US Republican Party congressman Paul Gosar and six other members of congress invited Tommy Robinson to speak at a private meeting at the US Congress on 14 November 2018.
106.
On 5 July 2019, Tommy Robinson was again found guilty of contempt of court at the retrial on three different grounds, including breaching the reporting restriction.
107.
Tommy Robinson said that British jails are controlled by jihadi gangs and he would be killed while in prison.
108.
On 11 July 2019, Tommy Robinson was jailed for nine months at the Old Bailey.
109.
Tommy Robinson described the sentence as an "absolute joke" and called for protests.
110.
Tommy Robinson had already served 69 days and would be required to serve about another ten weeks.
111.
On 13 September 2019, Tommy Robinson was released from prison after serving nine weeks.
112.
On Facebook, Tommy Robinson subsequently posted a screenshot of a message from a mother saying her daughter had been bullied and he accused the refugee of being the bully.
113.
An injunction was granted to stop Tommy Robinson from repeating the libel.
114.
Tommy Robinson was welcomed to the event by DPP leader Morten Messerschmidt, who has suggested Europe is on the brink of a racial civil war triggered by Muslim immigration.
115.
HM Prison Service began investigating how Tommy Robinson recorded and released a podcast from his prison cell.
116.
On 28 July 2024, Tommy Robinson was arrested by Kent Police at the Channel Tunnel in Folkestone under the Terrorism Act 2000, "for frustration of a schedule 7 examination" immediately after his 'Unite the Kingdom' protest at Trafalgar Square.
117.
Ahead of that hearing on 28 October 2024 at Woolwich Crown Court, Tommy Robinson was held in custody after handing himself in to Folkestone police station on 25 October.
118.
At the hearing, Tommy Robinson admitted contempt of court by repeating false allegations about the Syrian refugee.
119.
Tommy Robinson was relocated after the jail received numerous abusive and racist emails, including threats directed at the governor, who is a black woman.
120.
On 1 November 2024, Tommy Robinson entered a closed wing at HM Prison Woodhill to protect him from attacks by other prisoners.
121.
On 13 November 2024, Tommy Robinson appeared in court after failing to provide his mobile phone PIN when requested by police in Folkestone on 28 July 2024.
122.
In March 2025 Tommy Robinson challenged the Ministry of Justice's decision to segregate him from other prisoners at HM Prison Woodhill.
123.
Tommy Robinson told the High Court that he was "terrified of the long-term consequences of the continued solitary confinement".
124.
The Ministry said Tommy Robinson had been segregated after it received multiple intelligence reports indicating that two other prisoners were plotting to assault Tommy Robinson.
125.
The Ministry feared that Tommy Robinson would "be killed by a lifer" if he remained on a wing.
126.
The Ministry said Tommy Robinson's isolation was "substantially more permissive" than ordinary segregation arrangements: Tommy Robinson had access to a laptop and email, use of a gym facilities for three hours a day, and the ability to make social phone call for four hours each day.
127.
On 21 March 2025, Mr Justice Chamberlain dismissed Tommy Robinson's claim noting that Tommy Robinson's own barrister had acknowledged that there was no evidence he had been segregated "for the purpose of breaking his resistance or humiliating or debasing him".
128.
Tommy Robinson is expected to be released on license in July 2025.
129.
In March 2018, Tommy Robinson was permanently banned from Twitter for violating its rules on "hateful conduct".
130.
In January 2019, YouTube announced that it had removed adverts from Tommy Robinson's account, saying that he had breached the site's guidelines.
131.
On 13 August 2024, the 30th anniversary of the murder of Richard Everitt, Tommy Robinson stated on X that three defendants charged with the crime, Miah, Akbar, and Hai, had been 'convicted' of the killing.
132.
Tommy Robinson wrote to Robinson stating this, and reported the post.
133.
In 2017, American billionaire Robert J Shillman funded Robinson's fellowship at the right-wing Canadian website Rebel News, with Robinson receiving over $6,000 per month.
134.
Steve Bannon and Sam Brownback, a US State Department official, voiced US support for Tommy Robinson, as did Raheem Kassam who helped raise money for Tommy Robinson in the US.
135.
Tommy Robinson received funding from the right-wing Yellow Vest Australia group.
136.
Tommy Robinson has received support from some far-right pro-Israel organisations, and has been criticised by Jewish civil rights organisation the Anti-Defamation League.
137.
In January 2022, people owed money by Tommy Robinson appointed an independent insolvency expert in an attempt to recover their money before the deadline for claims in March 2022.
138.
Tommy Robinson was the subject of a HMRC tax investigation and was reported to have discussed becoming "non-resident" for tax purposes.