Agitator, criminal, Kremlin sympathiser: Who is Tommy Robinson, the man who appeared on Karl Stefanovic’s podcast?

They made a strange pair waltzing through London, grinning, after weeks of far-right unrest on British streets.

Karl Stefanovic, a television reporter for Nine, the owner of this masthead, was buzzing to interview his latest podcast guest, far-right figure Tommy Robinson, who was once jailed for stalking journalists – just days after protests Robinson helped promote in Northern Ireland had burnt the homes of migrants.

Within hours, Stefanovic’s exciting “exclusive” sit-down with Robinson had mysteriously disappeared from most major platforms online. Stefanovic’s “good friend” Pauline Hanson of One Nation has decried it as censorship, and reposted the video interview in full, as Nine distanced itself from the Robinson interview, which was on Stefanovic’s own independent podcast.

But who is Tommy Robinson, and why is he considered Britain’s loudest “voice of hate”?

Who is Tommy Robinson?

Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is a far-right activist from Luton, England, with a large following online, a string of criminal convictions and friends in surprising places – from Washington to the Kremlin.

In 2005, he lost his job as an apprentice aircraft engineer when he was jailed for assaulting an off-duty police officer and later took up the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, after a prominent member of a local crew of football hooligans.

Robinson started his street activism as a member of the fascist British National Party, which formed the paramilitary terrorist group Combat 18 (whose members have included some of Australia’s neo-Nazis).

Robinson has publicly shrugged off the label of neo-Nazi, splitting from the BNP to form his own English Defence League (EDL) in 2009, which rallied against what he called “the rise of radical Islam” in Britain. But the group’s street protests often spiralled into violence, leading to multiple convictions, including for Robinson. He later quit the league, citing “the dangers of far-right extremism”, and has since frequently teased a political run.

These days, though, he mostly styles himself as an independent journalist – a claim Stefanovic did not challenge during their hour-long interview despite Robinson’s frequent involvement in violent unrest and peddling of misinformation online.

Did he spark riots in the UK?

In the wave of anti-immigration unrest that has shaken Britain of late, Robinson’s name is the one you frequently hear chanted at rallies. After his violent days with the EDL, Robinson has frequently organised rallies that descended into violence, including last year’s Unite the Kingdom rallies.

In 2024, while sunbathing at a hotel in Cyprus, Robinson was accused of spreading misinformation about the perpetrator of a mass stabbing of children in Southport, falsely claiming the attacker was a Muslim refugee and sparking far-right riots across the UK. (His role is now being investigated by British authorities.)

Ahead of the most recent riots that tore through Northern Ireland, Robinson shared graphic footage of a stabbing attack in Belfast allegedly carried out by a Sudanese-born suspect and then promoted rallies which devolved into violent attacks on migrants and the burning of homes.

Of late, Robinson has been urging followers to prepare for a “battle of Britain”,and his rhetoric has frequently been blamed for Islamophobic violence. His content was singled out by police, including deputy chief Mark Rowley, as playing “a significant role” in the radicalisation of the terrorist behind the 2017 Finsbury Park mosque attack, for example. Robinson responded: “I’m gonna find Mark Rowley.”

What is Robinson’s criminal history?

Robinson has a long and varied rap sheet, convicted for possessing drugs, for assaults and for fraud cases running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. He has a particular self-described hatred of the press, having been convicted for stalking and threatening a string of journalists in late-night visits to their homes.

He was jailed in 2014 for his role as a “fixer” in an elaborate £640,000 ($1.2 million) mortgage fraud, and later for interfering in the trial of one of the British sex grooming gangs by “inciting vigilante justice”.

He was also fined and jailed for contempt of court in 2024 after repeating his online slander of a Syrian schoolboy refugee, who had gone viral after being beaten up.

Trump, Musk and the Kremlin

While Stefanovic praised Robinson as a man of the people from Britain’s working-class heart, the far-right figure has plenty of friends in high places.

Robinson has previously served as an adviser to populist politician Gerard Batten, who also took part in anti-Islam rallies which turned violent and once described the prophet Muhammad as “a paedophile”.

Robinson has been funded by US billionaires to “report” for far-right platform Rebel News, has been joined onstage at his rallies by the likes of long-time supporter Elon Musk, and has been hosted by the Trump administration, despite being previously banned from the US for travelling on a false passport in 2012.

He has also been hosted by the Israeli government, to the outrage of some neo-Nazis, and questions have long swirled about his connection to Moscow since he toured Russia in 2020 claiming to be a victim of Western censorship and praising the country’s authoritarian regime. Robinson has frequently spread pro-Russian propaganda, including supporting its invasion of Ukraine, and recently had his phone seized by authorities after another trip to Moscow, this time to meet Musk’s father.

In February, an investigation revealed Robinson had been put on the payroll of a Kremlin-controlled charity in 2020 as a “goodwill ambassador”.

When Robinson declared himself bankrupt in 2023, he owed millions of pounds, including to the Syrian boy he slandered. Yet Robinson and his ex-wife still owned lucrative real estate, and Robinson admitted in court to having splashed sizeable supporter donations on gambling, partying and alcohol.

Still, he remains something of an entrepreneur. He has run a tanning salon and last year launched a “consultancy app” offering advice for cash to his far-right followers, at £28 a minute. The app has since been accused of platforming violent rhetoric against migrants.

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