page_title: Tommy Robinson (activist)
section_title: English Defence League
hierarchical_section_title: Tommy Robinson (activist) / English Defence League
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Demonstranten van de 'European Defence League' (EDL). In het midden (grijze jas) staat Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (pseudoniem: Tommy Robinson), voormalig leider van de EDL.
context_page_description: Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, is a British far-right and anti-Islam activist. He is the co-founder and former leader of the English Defence League, and later served as a political advisor to former UKIP leader Gerard Batten.
  Robinson has been active in far-right politics for many years. He was a member of the neo-fascist and white nationalist British National Party from 2004 to 2005. For a short time in 2012, he was joint vice-chairman of the British Freedom Party. Robinson led the EDL from 2009 until 8 October 2013. He continued as an activist, and in 2015 became involved with the development of Pegida UK, a now defunct British chapter of the German-based far-right organisation Pegida. From 2017 to 2018, Robinson wrote for and appeared in online videos for Rebel News, a Canadian far-right political website.
  Robinson's criminal record includes convictions for violence, financial and immigration frauds, drug possession and public order offences. He has been committed to prison for contempt of court.
context_section_description: Robinson founded the English Defence League (EDL) in 2009 with Kevin Carroll, Robinson's cousin, and became its leader with Carroll as deputy leader. Robinson stated that he had been prompted to found the EDL after he had read a newspaper article about local Islamists attempting to recruit men outside a bakery in Luton to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Robinson has appeared masked at protests. Although Robinson repeatedly insisted from the early days of the organisation that the EDL was "against the rise of radical Islam" and that its members "aren't against Islam", its rank and file were noted for including football hooligans and members who described themselves as anti-Muslim. Robinson founded the European Defence League, a co-ordination of groups similar to the EDL operating in different European countries.
  Robinson's identity as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon was unmasked by Searchlight magazine in July 2010.  Yaxley-Lennon's prior criminal history was thereby connected with Robinson.
  Robinson said he was assaulted on 22 December 2011 after stopping his car due to another car flashing its lights at him. He said 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.
  Robinson was convicted in 2011 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' 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' 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.
  In 2012 Robinson announced that he had joined the British Freedom Party (BFP). He was appointed 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.
caption: Robinson with EDL demonstrators in Amsterdam in 2010
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