Tommy Robinson
Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, is a British far-right, anti-Islam activist who co-founded the English Defence League, serving as its leader from 2009 to 2013. Robinson often presents himself as an independent journalist and is known for creating self-produced investigative documentaries, most notably on the topic of the grooming gangs scandal.
Prior to the EDL, Robinson was a member of the British National Party, a British fascist political party, from 2004 to 2005. For a short time in 2012, he was joint vice-chairman of the British Freedom Party. In 2015, he became involved with the development of Pegida UK, a now-defunct British chapter of the German Pegida. From 2017 to 2018, he wrote and appeared in videos on the Canadian website Rebel News. In 2018, he also served as a political advisor to Gerard Batten, then the leader of the UK Independence Party.
Robinson has a history of criminal convictions, including contempt of court rulings relating to his documentaries, and has served five prison terms between 2005 and 2025. In June 2022, Robinson said that he lost £100,000 in gambling before declaring bankruptcy in March 2021. He also said he owed an estimated £160,000 to HM Revenue and Customs. In August 2024, The Times said that he owed in the region of £2 million to his creditors, and was the subject of a HMRC investigation over unpaid taxes.
Early life
Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon was born in Luton on 27 November 1982. According to him in 2013, he was born Stephen Yaxley in London, and later adopted by his stepfather, Thomas Lennon. He attended Putteridge High School.Robinson had an Irish mother and an English father. His mother worked at a bakery and at Vauxhall's car plant in Luton. After leaving school he applied to study aircraft engineering at Luton Airport: "I got an apprenticeship 600 people applied for, and they took four people on". He qualified in 2003 after five years of study, but lost his job when he was convicted of assaulting an off-duty police officer in a drunken argument for which he served a 12-month prison sentence.
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. The pseudonym successfully hid his identity and criminal history until the connection was uncovered in July 2010 by Searchlight magazine. He has also used the names Andrew McMaster, Paul Harris, Wayne King, and Stephen Lennon.
Personal life
Robinson married Jenna Vowles in 2011 after about 10 years together, and is the father of their three children. They divorced in February 2021. In 2010, he owned a tanning salon in Luton.English Defence League
Robinson founded the English Defence League in 2009 with his cousin Kevin Carroll, and became its leader with Carroll as deputy leader. 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. Many of the EDL's early members were recruited from football club supporters in Luton, London, Bristol and other English cities. Robinson described the EDL, shortly after it was founded, as being "against the rise of radical Islam". Paraic O'Brien, writing for the BBC, said that the organisation's rank-and-file were "loosely affiliated with football hooligan firms" and described themselves as anti-Islam. Robinson founded the European Defence League, a co-ordination of groups similar to the EDL operating in different European countries.In 2011, 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. Robinson reportedly led the group of Luton fans and played an integral part in starting a 100-man brawl, during which he chanted, "EDL till I die." He was sentenced to a 12-month community rehabilitation order with 150 hours of unpaid work and a three-year ban from attending football matches.
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. Robinson later began a hunger strike while on remand in HM Prison Bedford, saying that he was a "political prisoner of the state", and refused to eat what he believed was halal meat. A handful of EDL supporters protested outside the prison in support of Robinson during his incarceration; the support peaked at a turnout of 100 protesters on 10 September. Robinson was released on bail on 12 September.
On 29 September 2011, Robinson was convicted of common assault after headbutting a fellow EDL member at a rally in Blackburn in April that year. He was sentenced to 12 weeks of imprisonment, suspended for 12 months. On 8 November 2011, Robinson held a protest on the rooftop of the FIFA headquarters in Zürich against FIFA's ruling that the England national football team could not wear a Remembrance poppy symbol on their shirts. For this he was fined £3,000 and jailed for three days. Robinson said that he was assaulted on 22 December 2011. He 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". Robinson said that the attackers were of Asian appearance. Bedfordshire Police stated that it was "unclear what the motive for the attack was".
In 2012 Robinson announced that he had joined the British Freedom Party. He was appointed as its joint vice-chairman along with Carroll after the EDL and the BFP agreed an electoral pact in 2011. However, on 11 October 2012, Robinson resigned from the BFP to concentrate on EDL activities. Robinson has been described as one of the counter-jihad movement's most influential figures, with one report stating that by 2013 "Tommy Robinson now holds almost legendary status within this nascent movement, and is considered the "rock star" of the ECJM ." Robinson attended official international counter-jihad events in 2012 in Aarhus, Denmark, Stockholm, Sweden and Brussels, Belgium.
In April 2012, Robinson took part in the BBC series The Big Questions, in which far-right extremism was debated. The series saw the British Muslim commentator Mo Ansar inviting Robinson to join him and his family for dinner, resulting in several meetings over the next 18 months to discuss Islam, Islamism and the Muslim community; the meetings were captured in the BBC documentary When Tommy Met Mo.
On 8 October 2013, the think tank Quilliam held a press conference with Robinson and the EDL's deputy leader Kevin Carroll to announce that Robinson and Carroll had left the EDL. Robinson said that he had been considering leaving for a long time because of concerns over the "dangers of far-right extremism". He said, "I acknowledge the dangers of far-right extremism and the ongoing need to counter Islamist ideology not with violence but with better, democratic ideas." He left the EDL alongside 10 other senior figures, with Tim Ablitt becoming the EDL's new leader. When Robinson was questioned by The Guardian about having blamed "every single Muslim" for "getting away" with the 7 July 2005 London bombings, and for calling Islam a "fascist and violent" religion, he apologised. He also 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". He said in his autobiography that he was paid £2,000 per month for Quilliam to take credit for his leaving the EDL, which a Quilliam spokesperson denied.
Activities since 2014
Robinson spoke at the Oxford Union on 26 November 2014. Unite Against Fascism protested against his appearance, criticising the Union for allowing him the platform when, according to UAF, he had not renounced the views of the EDL. Robinson told the audience he was not allowed to talk about certain issues because he was out on prison licence. He said, "I regain my freedom of speech on the 22 July 2015." He criticised "politicians, the media, and police for failing to tackle certain criminal activities because of the fear of being labelled Islamophobic." He said that HM Prison Woodhill had become "an ISIS training camp", and that radicals were "running the wings".After release from licence at the end of his sentence, Robinson returned to anti-Islam demonstrations with Pegida UK, a British offshoot of Pegida, a German anti-immigration organisation founded in Dresden amidst the 2015 European migrant crisis. Addressing a Pegida anti-Islam rally in October 2015, Robinson spoke out against what he perceived to be the threat of Islamist terrorists posing as refugees. He announced the creation of a "British chapter" of Pegida in December 2015. He 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. On 14 February 2016 Robinson was attacked and treated at a hospital after leaving a nightclub in Essex. Robinson wrote an autobiography, Enemy of the State, which he self-published in 2015.
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. Bedfordshire Police imposed a football banning order on him on his return; his solicitor Alison Gurden accused the police of equating the proscribed terrorist group with all Muslims in their action. In September, a judge at Luton Magistrates' Court dismissed the case, calling the prosecution's evidence "vague" and "cagey".
On 27 August 2016, 18 Luton Town football supporters, including Robinson and his family, were ejected by police from a pub in Cambridge on the day of the Cambridge United versus Luton football match. Robinson claimed he had been victimised, and complaints were submitted to Cambridge Police. In March 2019, at Peterborough County Court, Robinson accused Cambridgeshire Constabulary of harassment, direct discrimination, humiliation, causing him stress and anxiety and breaching his human rights, namely the right to family life, right to freedom of conscience or religion, and freedom of expression. The claims related to police behaviour around Robinson possibly being issued a section 35 dispersal order at the pub after the match in 2016. The court rejected Robinson's claims and ordered him to pay £20,000 towards costs. Robinson said he would appeal against the ruling.
Robinson was a correspondent for Rebel News, a Canadian far-right website. In May 2017 he was arrested for contempt of court after he attempted to film the defendants in an ongoing rape trial outside Canterbury Crown Court. Robinson's second self-published book, Mohammed's Koran: Why Muslims Kill For Islam was co-authored with Peter McLoughlin and released in 2017. Amazon has refused to sell it. Robinson was involved in a fist fight at Royal Ascot later in June 2017, for which Piers Morgan criticised him on Twitter.
In March 2018, Robinson attended court in support of Mark Meechan, a Scottish YouTuber 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". Meechan was found guilty because the video was "antisemitic and racist in nature" and was aggravated by religious prejudice. Meechan said that the video was taken out of context and was a joke to annoy his girlfriend. In October 2018, further controversy arose after Robinson posted a joint photo with two dozen young British Army "recruits" as he described them. He also posted on his Facebook page a video of the occasion in which the soldiers allegedly cheered him, shouting his name. The British Army launched an investigation, saying, "Far-right ideology is completely at odds with the values and ethos of the armed forces. The armed forces have robust measures in place to ensure those exhibiting extremist views are neither tolerated nor permitted to serve." The Government's lead counter-extremism commissioner praised the army's response, saying, "This is typical of the far right. They manipulate and exploit their way into the mainstream, often targeting the military and co-opting its symbols. Tommy Robinson's attention-seeking is cover for divisive anti-Muslim hatred that is causing real harm to individuals, communities, and society in general."
In November 2018, he was appointed as "grooming gang advisor" to UKIP under Gerard Batten. In 2020, he visited Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, following protests in support of Eleanor Williams, a teenager accused and later convicted of perverting the course of justice by lying about being raped by a grooming gang. Robinson visited the town despite her family asking him to stay away. In 2019, he appeared to show support for an ex-British soldier facing prosecution for the murder of Irish civilians on Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland. Robinson wore a badge that said "I support soldiers A–Z" after "Soldier F" was set to face charges for the murder of civilians. In January 2019, Robinson livestreamed himself causing a lockdown, by leading a group that surrounded a library where Stewart McDonald, then the member of Parliament for Glasgow South, was holding a 'surgery'. The group included the convicted armed kidnapper Daniel Thomas. The library was reportedly bombarded with phone calls. McDonald was eventually escorted away by police and said Robinson's party had blocked emergency exits.
In February 2019, using his Facebook account, Robinson wrote "I guess it's ok to rape white women then?" next to a Rape Crisis flyer about specialist services for ethnic minority victims, resulting in hundreds of racist and abusive phone calls to the centre from Robinson's supporters. The centre, which was providing support for rape victims of all ethnic backgrounds, condemned Robinson's post for "disrupting much-needed service provision for victims and survivors of sexual violence and abuse of all ethnicities and backgrounds". The centre included specialised services for ethnic minorities because "some groups of women who have survived sexual violence and abuse can face additional barriers to accessing services, including related to language and to the fear and/or past or current experience of racism and racial discrimination".
On 23 February 2019, Robinson held a rally in MediaCityUK outside the BBC's Salford, Greater Manchester offices to protest against the BBC's investigative current affairs programme Panorama and its presenter John Sweeney. During the rally Robinson launched his film Panodrama that was broadcast on a large screen to the crowd of 4000 people, showing undercover footage of Sweeney, filmed by Robinson's former aide Lucy Brown. Batten spoke in support during the rally. 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. Concurrently, about 500 people attended a counter-protest by anti-fascists. In response the BBC made an announcement that it strongly rejects any suggestion that its journalism is biased. Confirming that an upcoming Panorama episode was being prepared to investigate Robinson and his activities, it added that all programmes the BBC broadcasts follow BBC's "strict editorial guidelines". Regarding some of Sweeney's remarks during Robinson's Panodrama film exposé, the BBC announcement added: "Some of the footage which has been released was recorded without our knowledge during this investigation and John Sweeney made some offensive and inappropriate remarks, for which he apologises."
On 4 March 2019, at 11 pm, Robinson arrived uninvited outside the home of a journalist who covers far-right issues and attempted to intimidate him. Robinson revealed the journalist's address on a livestream and threatened to reveal the addresses of other journalists. He left after police arrived, but returned at 5 am. 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. Robinson gave no indication that the journalist he attempted to intimidate had been involved in that alleged act. The journalist said the letter had been given to a police officer 50 metres from the house in question.
In January 2020, Robinson was given the Sappho Award by the Danish Free Press Society at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen. The International Free Press Society is closely connected to the counterjihad movement and Liz Fekete, the executive director of the Institute of Race Relations in Britain, has suggested that it is an instrument for pushing the boundaries of hate speech. On 1 November 2020, Robinson was arrested at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London, for breaking COVID-19 lockdown rules. Robinson has promoted debunked conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines. In May 2021, he attended a march in London in support of Israel. In response to the Telford child sexual exploitation scandal, Robinson held a protest in January 2022 where he screened his 73-minute documentary about Muslim grooming gangs, titled The Rape of Britain: Survivor Stories.
In August 2025, Robinson shared a video on Twitter of a black man and his brother playing with his white granddaughters in a park in North Yorkshire, falsely accusing them of paedophilia, which resulted in the family being racially abused with false paedophilia accusations. Labour MP for Redcar Anna Turley had to write a reference letter of good behaviour after the victim was suspended by his management. Turley stated that there was "no place for hate in our town" and said she was "heartbroken" for the family "who've been targeted and abused because of Tommy Robinson's poisonous lies".
On 13 September 2025, in central London, over 110,000 people gathered in a 'Unite the Kingdom' rally organised by Robinson. A 5,000-strong counter-protest by anti-racism campaigners also took place. Violence at the rally saw 26 police officers injured, and 24 people arrested, after protesters threw bottles and other projectiles. Also in September 2025, British singer and songwriter Labi Siffre issued a cease and desist order against Robinson, over his use of his song " So Strong" at the rally, saying: "Anybody who knows me... will know the joke of them using the work of a positive atheist, homosexual black artist as apparently representative of their movement."
In October 2025, some Metropolitan Police officers were suspended for allegedly supporting Robinson's anti-Muslim stance.
On 13 December 2025, Robinson, who was reported to have converted to Christianity while in prison, organised a 'Unite the Kingdom' Christmas service attended by around 1,000 people.
In January 2026, Robinson met italian far-right politician and Deputy Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Salvini.