Tommy Robinson

Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon (né Yaxley; born 27 November 1982), better known as Tommy Robinson, is a British far-right, anti-Islam activist. Described as "one of [the] UK's most prominent far-right activists", he co-founded the English Defence League (EDL), serving as its leader from 2009 to 2013.

Prior to the EDL, Robinson was a member of the British National Party (BNP), 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 (BFP). 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 (UKIP).

Robinson is also known for creating self-produced documentary videos, including on topics like the grooming gangs scandal. Some of these videos have been found in court to include defamatory false statements about their subjects.

Robinson has a history of criminal convictions, including for crimes such as assault, threats, harassment, and fraud, as well as 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 (HMRC). 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 (EDL) 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 (BFP). 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 [European Counter-Jihad Movement]." 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 (UAF) 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".