Tommy Robinson is the assumed name of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a British far-right activist and self-styled "citizen journalist". In 2009 he co-founded the English Defence League (EDL), a football-hooligan-inspired street movement with the slogan "not racist, not violent, just no longer silent"; it was later infiltrated by neo-Nazis and fizzled. He rebranded in 2017 by making videos for Rebel Media, a far-right Canadian outlet.
He has been jailed several times, most notably in 2018 for disrupting a grooming-gangs trial, and was found in contempt of court for repeatedly libelling a Syrian schoolboy. He admitted to losing £100,000 gambling during the libel case. The American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones funded a documentary smearing the same boy. Robert Shillman, a right-wing American tech mogul, was an early backer.
Robinson's brand was supercharged when Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2023: Musk restored his account and pays his legal fees. Steve Bannon has called him the "backbone" of Britain. Some 40% of the millions of #FreeTommy tweets came from America. He is too toxic for Nigel Farage and Reform UK.
A More in Common survey for The Economist found that 14% of Britons view him positively; YouGov finds 29% of British men like him, up from 9% in 2021. Around 48% of Britons think the Muslim population is changing British society in mostly negative ways. Kevin Carroll, Robinson's relative and EDL co-founder, was the original coiner of "two-tier policing", a phrase later picked up by Farage.
In September 2025 a rally he organised drew about 150,000 people in London (he claimed 1m), with a beamed-in speech from Musk—the largest far-right demonstration in British history. He toured America in 2025-26 with a State Department waiver despite his criminal convictions, met congressmen, and visited the State Department. A further rally was planned for May 16th 2026.
Churchill's Commentary on Man: Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.