As the UK goes up in flames, the man accused of starting the fire is sunbathing in a luxury hotel in Cyprus. On Sunday, August 4, the British tabloid Daily Mail posted a photo of Tommy Robinson in a swimsuit by the pool and titled it “Tommy Robinson is sunbathing in a five-star hotel… while his foot soldiers engage in violent protests across the UK.” It must be said that the far-right activist has fanned the flames.
Hours after the attack that killed three children on July 29 in Southport, Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, was among the first to spread false rumours about the origin and religion of the attacker, wrongly identified as a Muslim asylum seeker. “How did this jihadist get a student visa to come to the UK?” could be read on his account on X.
Followed by nearly 900,000 people on the social network and 300,000 on YouTube, the activist videographer, who participated in the founding of the far-right movement English Defence League (EDL) in 2009, has fuelled Islamophobic and anti-immigration demonstrations. “Tommy Robinson has a mass audience and knows how to mobilize crowds,” explains Matthijs Gardenier, lecturer in sociology at Paul-Valéry University in Montpellier.
“A far-right influencer”
“He is the most important far-right influencerin the UK »believes the specialist, author of a forthcoming book (1) on anti-migrant vigilantism. Permanently banned from Twitter in 2018 after violating the rules governing hateful behavior, Tommy Robinson was reinstated in 2022 by Elon Musk when the latter bought the platform. Very active on X, Telegram and YouTube, the activist, originally from Luton in north London, regularly publishes anti-Islam and anti-immigration videos and documentaries on his social networks.
His latest documentary, Silenced, who spreads false rumors about a Syrian refugee, landed him on trial in 2021. Although convicted of defamation, the 41-year-old agitator continued to make reprehensible remarks and did not show up for a hearing scheduled for July 29. Assault, fraud… his criminal record is extensive.
Although he officially left the English Defence League in 2013 and claims to have distanced himself from its members, links remain with this movement which has formally ceased to exist. The British authorities accuse its followers, starting with Tommy Robinson, of fanning the flames across the United Kingdom. From his deckchair in Cyprus, the influencer continues to share a stream of Islamophobic and anti-immigration posts and videos.
(1) The ideology of security, from anti-migrant vigilantism to authoritarian liberalismreleased in November 2024 by Liber editions.
