Tommy Robinson

It's muslims attacking me!

Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson (main pseudonym), Paul Harris, or Stephen Lennon, is a far-right media personality known for hating and opposing Muslims; he is also former member of the far-right British Nazi National Party (BNP) and the founder and former leader of the anti-Muslim far-right English Defence League (EDL), a group he has since left. He is also the founder of the far-right, anti-Muslim Pegida UK. He has since emerged as an anti-Muslim far-right pundit, allegedly working for far-right outlet Rebel Media, mostly focusing on anti-EU sentiment and anti-Muslim bigotry. You get the idea, dude is a tad obsessed with Muslims and far right politics.

Name self-confusion
For some time he operated under the pseudonym "Tommy Robinson". However, in June 2010, the antifascist magazine Searchlight of Hope not Hate claimed that his real name was Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and that he had been a member of the BNP. A couple of months later, the EDL, in a (now-removed) report on the group's official website, declared that his name was, in fact, "Paul Harris":

Another website critical of the EDL, One Million United, examined the claims and concluded that his name was indeed Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, not Paul Harris. Lennon has since begun publicly identifying himself as Stephen Lennon and was indeed revealed to be named Stephen Yaxley-Lennon in 2017 court proceedings.

The above comments from the EDL website became incredibly ironic in October 2013, when Lennon went on a curious stalking session against Garry Moon, owner of the anti-EDL website EDLNews. Lennon looked up Moon in a telephone directory and found details about a completely different person who also happened to be named Garry Moon and proceeded to post pictures of this individual's home on Twitter.

April: Conviction for assaulting an off-duty police officer
According to Searchlight magazine, Lennon was convicted in April 2005 for assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Lennon had assaulted an off-duty police officer who had intervened to stop a confrontation between Lennon and his partner Jenna Vowles, another BNP member, who was cautioned for possession of cocaine.

June: Arrest for brawling
In June 2011, he was arrested in connection with a brawl at an EDL demonstration. "Due to the ongoing harassment by the Police forces of the UK I have decided that as from this point in time there will no longer be any Police Liaison with any Police force at all levels, Division, Regional or National," he said.

July: Arrest for brawling
The following month he was sentenced to twelve months of "community rehabilitation" for his front-line role in a fight between rival football hooligans, to which he responded that the country is a "police state."

May: Sexual harassment of a minor
In May 2012, then 29-year-old Lennon took the time to sexually harass a 15-year-old on Twitter, with the knowledge that she was a minor:







October: Arrest for false passport
On 20 October 2012, Lennon was arrested on suspicion of possessing a false passport (under the name "Andrew McMaster"), and, after spending Christmas in jail, was found guilty in January 2013. He was released from prison the following February, under bail conditions that kept him away from the EDL.

November: Arrest for mortgage fraud
In November 2013, he was convicted of mortgage fraud and sentenced in January 2014 to 18 months imprisonment. He had conspired with a crooked mortgage broker, Deborah Rothschild, and others, to obtain mortgages under false pretences. Robinson obtained £160,000 over a period of 6 months; Rothschild helped her co-conspirators obtain a total of £640,000 and she was also jailed for 18 months. He was released on parole in June 2014, again with conditions barring him from contact with the EDL. Much of his sentence was spent in solitary confinement for his own protection.

October: Departure from the EDL
In October 2013, Lennon announced that he was leaving the EDL:

February: Pegida UK
Lennon, while meeting with Pegida and other groups in the Czech Republic, told reporters that a serious Pegida movement would begin in the UK with him largely involved that would be more than the existing small British Pegida groups. Lennon stated that the group would have far less drinking and fighting with the far left than the EDL. Lennon did indeed speak at Pegida rallies in the UK.

February: Hospitalization
On 13 February, Lennon was found unconscious outside Club 195, a nightclub, and was hospitalized. It's not clear who caused the fight or what occurred. Some have claimed that this attack is related to an 11 February interview where Lennon claimed that he believed he would eventually be "killed" with IEDs or guns by "Islamists"; however, there is no evidence to support this. One club employee claimed that Lennon was part of a fight that began in the bathrooms:

A spokesperson for Essex police stated:

Lennon declined to pursue the matter with police.

May: Arrest for contempt of court
Lennon was arrested for "trying to film Muslims" during court proceedings on an alleged child grooming case, despite notices that doing so was illegal posted on the building. His sentence was suspended for 18 months (ie, it would only apply if he broke this law again). He did, as documented in the May 2018 section of this article.

The Judge, at length, explained why this is not a free speech issue:

February: Radicalization of the Finsbury Park terrorist
Prosecutors and the former head of national counter-terror policing claimed that Lennon's online posts (among other far-right material that he consumed) had radicalised Darren Osborne, who plotted to ram a van into a Palestinian march. Osborne crashed his car into a crowd of Muslims leaving a mosque around midnight, killing 1 and injuring several. Former Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Mark Rowley stated:

March: Brawling while allegedly working for Rebel Media
In March 2018, Lennon continued to get himself into bother, while allegedly working as a journalist for Canadian far-right outlet Rebel Media. His placement with Rebel was funded by American machine-vision billionaire, who contributed to his salary of around &pound; 5000 per month. In Rome on a journalistic assignment to investigate migrants being evil, he punched a migrant in the face; Robinson claimed he was defending his camera crew against the migrants. He also posted footage on YouTube of what he claimed was footage of himself being set upon by a violent gang of Antifa protestors outside a London branch of fast food chain McDonalds.

March: Banned from Twitter
In March 2018, Stephen was banned from Twitter for breaking their "hateful conduct" policy.

May: "Free speech" rally in London with hooligans
On 6 May 2018, he organised a rally of 2000-3000 people in Whitehall in central London ostensibly devoted to "free speech", with support from far-right football hooligan group the Democratic Football Lads Alliance. Speakers included American alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, UKIP leader Gerard Batten, British anti-Islam campaigner Anne Marie Waters, and YouTube personality Sargon of Akkad.

May: Arrest for contempt of court
In May 2018, Lennon was arrested for breaking contempt of court with a Facebook livestream of a "child grooming gang" case at Leeds Crown Court. The case that Lennon livestreamed had had a reporting restriction, which made his actions illegal. In addition, Lennon had been sentenced in May 2017 with contempt of court for reporting on another "child grooming gang" case in Canterbury, despite notices that doing so was illegal posted on the building; his sentence was suspended for 18 months (ie, it would only apply if he broke this law again, which he did). Lennon acknowledged these facts during the livestream:

At his sentencing, Lennon admitted that his livestream could have stopped the trial of alleged groomers (which would have prevented any justice for the victims) and that he breached his suspended sentence. Lennon was sentenced to 13 months of jail time, 10 months for this contempt of court case and 3 months for breaking his suspended sentence.

Nazir Afzal, who has prosecuted other "grooming gang" (informally organised child rape-rings ) cases, explained that Lennon's arrest was intended to ensure that the jury was unbiased, which would prevent the alleged child groomers from claiming a mistrial:

On 2 August 2018, in an appeal hearing, Robinson's sentence was overturned and he was bailed from prison. In a twenty-four-page judgement, the Lord Chief Justice, sitting in the Court of Appeal, highlighted a number of substantive flaws in the handling of the latest contempt case by the trial judge at Leeds and ordered that the case be re-heard before a different judge.

The judge at Leeds had imposed a reporting restriction on Lennon's case over fears it could affect the "child grooming gang" trial; however, the order was lifted after The Independent and Leeds Live pressured the court. But by the time all the reporting restrictions were lifted, Robinson's supporters filled the internet with what were at the time characterised as conspiracy theories claiming this was an unprecedented attack on freedom of speech and a highly irregular legal procedure.

Tommy Robinson was imprisoned in HMP Hull. Some Tommy Robinson supporters have claimed that he was relocated to HMP Leicester, which is claimed by Alex Jones to have 71% Muslim inmates (as opposed to 2% for HMP Hull). Neither of these claims is true; according to his lawyer, Robinson is still imprisoned in HMP Hull; HMP Hull is 7% Muslim; and HMP Leicester is 14% Muslim.

Further rallies followed in support of Robinson, including in London on 9 June and 14 July 2018. Daniel Pipes' Middle East Forum, an American Anti-Islamic group whom the SPLC has accused of "fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment", claimed to have funded both marches and contributed to Robinson's legal fees. Paul Gosar, a member of the US House of Representatives, spoke at the 14 July rally in support of Robinson, despite Robinson's lack of connections to the US. Since his jailing he has also received backing from American wingnut Congress critter turned diplomat Sam Brownback, right-wing media figure Steve Bannon, and presidential spawn Donald Trump Jr.

March: Intimidation of critics
In March 2019 11pm, Lennon arrived at the home of Mike Stuchbery, a journalist critical of Lennon. Lennon likely had accomplices, although he denies this. He violently banged on the doors/windows of the property until he presumably got bored and left. At 5am, Lennon turned up again and repeated the action.

Soon after, Hope not Hate (a British, anti-fascist advocacy group) posted an article alleging that they and other groups had received similar threats from Lennon.

May: European parliamentary candidate (failing)
He stood as an independent candidate for the European Parliament in May 2019 but received only 2.2% of votes in the North West England region, failing by a considerable margin to be elected. His campaign has been characterised by hostile behaviour towards people opposed to Lennon's speech. As a result, two anti-racism demonstrators were sent to the hospital. One of them has been assaulted by Lennon's campaign organiser, which led to the case being investigated by the police.

July: Retrial for contempt of court
Following his appeal over the contempt of court conviction in 2018, he was retried and convicted in July 2019, being sentenced to 9 months in prison (although the amount of time already served will be subtracted). Prior to sentencing, he attempted to claim asylum from Donald Trump, but Trump didn't seem convinced and we were spared a replay of Julian Assange hiding in an embassy for several years; claiming asylum would also prevent him from returning to the UK in future, which would interfere with his main hobby of shouting at British Muslims. He also reportedly sought the help of Ted Cruz in moving to the USA, with Cruz's friend the businessman Terry Giles involved in connecting Robinson's supporters to Cruz; however nothing came of this. On 11 July he was off to jail again.

March: Arrest for assault
Lennon was charged with assault after punching a man in the face following an altercation in the swimming pool at Woburn Forest Centre Parcs. He received a sentence of 300 hours of community service for the offence in November 2020.

2021
In January 2021, he found new targets, Independent newspaper home affairs correspondent Lizzie Dearden and her boyfriend; she was investigating allegations that he had misused money from his supporters. He was arrested on 17 January after he and an accomplice went to the couple's home and tried to gain entry to their house; on being refused entry, Robinson sat outside in his car, tooted the horn repeatedly, and shouted (falsely) "There’s a paedophile living in this building." In March 2021, an English court issued an order under anti-stalking legislation preventing him from threatening or having anything to do with them, pending a full trial.

In July 2021, he lost a libel case bought by schoolboy Jamal Hijazi who, in 2018, was filmed being attacked by another pupil at his school and was then accused by Robinson of being a violent aggressor. Robinson lost the case and declared bankruptcy to avoid paying damages of £100,000, legal costs, and other debts of up to £2,000,000. There was widespread suspicion that he had lied to declare bankruptcy and clear his debts, and he actually had millions of pounds of assets hidden away which he would be able to enjoy once the bankruptcy period was complete and the debt was discharged; Hope not Hate declared they would try to track down his missing wealth.

Banned from Facebook and Instagram
In February 2019, Yaxley-Lennon was permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram for repeatedly breaking its policies on hate speech. Not surprisingly, this was followed by comparisons to Nazi Germany and Orwell's 1984 by his faithful supporters.

Lauded by fellow wingnuts as the 2019 champion of free speech
In a case at least similar to, if not an outright example of, wingnut welfare, Robinson/Yaxley-Lennon was given the 2019 annual award as a champion of free speech working for ”a free and open English society“ (no, not The Onion) by Trykkefrihedsselskabet, a society of fellow wingnuts and Islamophobes. Considering the awardee and the company, the various speeches were of course awash with various veins of conspiracy theories, red baiting and persecution complexes.