Tommy Robinson is an infamous far-right British activist who is well known for his anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant stance. Tommy Robinson was extremely popular in Britain for some time but his popularity has waned over the years.

Here Are Some Tidbits About Tommy Robinson

Tommy Robinson’s life is contradictory 

Everything around Tommy Robinson is contradictory, although this is not even his real name. Just over a year ago, Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, known to everyone in the United Kingdom as Tommy Robinson, appeared on a screen in a neighborhood in the greater Manchester area announcing his intention to become an MEP. 

Tommy Robinson tried to become a parliament member

At only 36 years old, this radical, white supremacist, anti-immigration, and anti-European activist launched his candidacy as an independent for the region of North West England seeking the Euroseat that would allow him to live off the European Union but to destroy it from inside. 

There, from the outskirts of Manchester, he said that he spoke for the people, to confront the political elite and the media. “They don’t live where we do; nor do they experience what we experience.” While he was saying those words, his country house was for sale through a real estate agency for 900,000 pounds, almost a million euros: a house with a hot tub in the garden.

Tommy Robinson moved to Spain

Founder of the far-right English Defense League (EDL) party, Robinson recently announced that he was looking to relocate his family after an alleged arson attempt on his wife’s property a few weeks ago. The British press placed him in Spain, and more than one has already located him in the Marbella area, where he has moved with his family. 

Tommy Robinson faced a lot of backlash after moving to Spain

This decision has cost him harsh criticism, given his strong pro-Brexit profile and his anti-immigration perspective. “At that moment (at the time of the alleged attack) we left the country, and since then I have been trying to relocate my family, something that is quite difficult due to the situation caused by the coronavirus. We have not been able to find a hotel. But my family has to be far away because, basically, they are not safe,” he explained in a video that circulated on social networks.

Tommy Robinson has been staying in Spain for some time

The truth is that Robinson’s statements are recent, although his stay in Spain seems to precede his history. On July 12, a user posted on Twitter a video taken from another social network in which a British man was seen recognizing Tommy Robinson, sitting with his family on an apparent vacation, while calling him a “damn racist pig.” “In front of my family?” asked a calm Robinson.

The video in which he explains the reasons for his ‘escape’ from the United Kingdom to Spain was much more recent. “For those like me, who know Robinson’s modus operandi, this makes no sense,” explains Louise Raw, historian, broadcaster, and columnist in ‘ The Independent ‘. ” Robinson had remained secretly in Spain for at least two weeks (…); before that video, he had not acknowledged that he was abroad, nor had he spoken about the alleged attack on his wife’s home. 

This is unusual, as he is usually quick to exaggerate any perceived threat, sometimes to solicit donations from his followers.” Journalist Lizzie Dearden, from the same newspaper, consulted with the Bedfordshire Police about the history of arson in homes in the area, and the authorities assured that there was no record of any type of attack on the properties of Robinson’s family. 

While many wondered where that video had been recorded, Robinson suggested that it could be in Spain when trying to justify his absence at a rally in the United Kingdom. “Someone offered my wife a place to stay, so we left the country and although I had to fly back for the demonstration, now with this mandatory 14-day quarantine, I probably wouldn’t be able to return and my children were going to be here,” explained in a video. 

Although at the beginning of July the British Government eliminated this mandatory two-week self-isolation for passengers arriving from countries like Spain, this measure was reimposed a few days ago for anyone entering the entire United Kingdom from anywhere in Spain. Shortly after, Robinson himself confirmed, through a video broadcast on social networks, that his location was Marbella. He did it in a short recording in which he apologized in advance for arriving late for a live broadcast, and he did it from one of the paddle tennis courts at the Manolo Santana Racquets sports club, in the city on the Costa del Sol.

Tommy Robinson advocated for deporting all poor migrants from England

Given that his argument to defend his transfer – it is not known whether temporary or permanent – to Spain has been the insecurity that, he affirms, his family lives there – “they are not safe” – it was to be expected that his own words would become his nemesis. A staunch opponent of immigration, especially Muslim immigration, four years before traveling to Marbella “for security” he assured that all Muslims who fled the war in Syria in search of safe areas in Europe should be “returned.” 

Tommy Robinson suffered persecution at the hands of the British State

“Personally, I would take every adult male who has entered the European Union in the last 12 months and send him back to his country tomorrow if he could,” he went on to say. He defined himself as a ” man persecuted by the British State .” 

“Tommy Robinson, enemy of the State’ is an autobiography in which the British far-right activist himself defends his position against the “Islamic extremism and criminal gangs” that “plague” his hometown, Luton, and how for his “support for British soldiers” he has been ” harassed by the courts and thrown into the Muslim underworld that runs the English prisons”, known by Robinson himself, who has passed through them on more than one occasion. 

Tommy Robinson has been to prison numerous times

Married with three children, his first known visit to prisons occurred 15 years ago when one drunken night he ended up fighting with a man who turned out to be an off-duty police officer: he was sentenced to a year in prison. In 2011, he was convicted again for his “threatening, abusive and insulting” behavior during a crowd fight at a football match in his native Luton. Last year he was filmed in Portugal, also in the vicinity of a football stadium, hitting a man in the middle of the street; The victim later explained that at some point he had approached the activist to tell him that he did not represent all Britons. “You definitely don’t represent me. I didn’t even know fascists were allowed in this party.”

Tommy Robinson’s list of criminal acts is very long

In the last decade, Tommy Robinson has been convicted of several crimes, from trying to enter the United States with another person’s passport, to mortgage fraud, in addition to having committed many other crimes such as drug possession, failure to comply with court orders, or threatening behavior. 

In 2018 he was arrested outside the Leeds court while he was broadcasting, live and on social media, details of one of the most important trials in recent years, which ended with twenty men convicted of sexual abuse committed against girls in the Huddersfield area. The judge had issued an order temporarily prohibiting reporting any details of the process.

Robinson has been convicted of forgery, fraud, threatening behavior… and contempt of court. Robinson appeared that same day before the magistrate, who ended up decreeing 13 months in prison, ten for contempt of court (for violating the non-dissemination order) and another three for failure to comply with the conditions of a previous sentence. After winning an appeal in court, he was retried and in July of last year, a new sentence was issued that removed his freedom for nine months. Robinson himself described his conviction as an “absolute joke” and called for protests, with some success: some of his followers gathered around the courts to ask for his freedom, considering him a “political prisoner.”. He even publicly appealed for Donald Trump to offer him asylum in the United States, because “dark forces” were working against him.

Tommy Robinson tends to keep assaulting people

Last June, before fleeing to Spain, he was arrested on suspicion of having attacked a man who, according to his version, had spat at him. 

A few months earlier, Tommy Robinson was arrested and charged with another assault offense after an altercation at a pool at Center Parcs, a luxury resort chain, where Robinson allegedly punched another man in the face. 

Tommy Robinson is banned from numerous social media apps

Tommy Robinson’s continued hate speech has earned him the suspension of his social media accounts from Zuckerberg’s company, permanently blocked for more than a year.