EXTREMISMTommy Robinson: Five Things to Know
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is a former soccer hooligan who, around 2009, adopted the name Tommy Robinson. In 2009, he founded the English Defense League (EDL), an anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant organization. The EDL’s anti-immigrant views, mostly directed at Muslims, mobilized Britons and attracted support from xenophobic groups in the U.S.
1. Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is a British anti-Muslim bigot with ties to far-right groups in Europe.
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is a former soccer hooligan who, around 2009, adopted the name Tommy Robinson from another infamous soccer hooligan associated with a football club in his hometown of Luton. In October 2024, he began serving an 18-month prison term for contempt of court related to an anti-Muslim libel lawsuit he lost in 2021.
In 2004, Robinson joined the fascist British National Party (BNP), but left after one year, later claiming he didn’t know the group held white supremacist views. In 2009, he founded the English Defense League (EDL), an anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant organization made up of hundreds of his fellow former soccer hooligans. Robinson said he formed the group to fight radical Islam in the streets of Great Britain.
EDL, now defunct, opposed Muslim immigration to the U.K. and vilified the Muslims already living there. The group held frequent, violent protests against the Muslim community. In 2011, Robinson declared, “The Islamic community will feel the full force of the EDL if we see any of our citizens killed, maimed or hurt on British soil ever again.” Robinson left the EDL by 2013 due to infighting and other internal problems but remained an anti-Muslim activist. Hope Not Hate, a British organization that monitors extremism, reported that in 2016, Robinson tweeted, “I’d personally send every adult male Muslim that has come into the EU over the past 12 months back tomorrow if I could.” In early 2017, Robinson became a reporter for the Canadian far-right website Rebel Media, where he produced anti-Muslim videos.
Robinson was arrested in May 2018 after livestreaming outside a trial involving Muslim men who were charged with sexually grooming young British girls (see below for more information). In addition, prosecutors alleged that Robinson’s social media posts influenced Darren Osborne, who deliberately drove a van into a group of Muslims near a mosque in Finsbury Park, London, in June 2017, killing one person and injuring several others.
