Thread by @bobfrombrockley

So, "Tommy Robinson" (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) has called for his followers to join a march against antisemitism, to a resoundingly negative response from the organisers and the mainstream Jewish community. Quick thread on him and his supporters...

"Tommy Robinson" (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) joined the fascist British National Party (BNP) in 2004 age 20, stayed for a year. In this pic he's with Holocaust denier Richard Edmonds (convicted of racist violence in the 1990s). But was this just some youthful thing?

In 2012, Yaxley-Lennon became the deputy leader of the British Freedom Party, which was led by disgruntled BNP members and advocated "cultural nationalism". Its logo echoes (L) echoes that of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (R)

In 2013, Yaxley-Lennon pretended to renounce extremism, quitting the EDL because it was full of Nazis, a political turn that (unsurprisingly) proved to be pretty short-term. brockley.blogspot.com/2013/11/weighi…

In 2017 he got a job with Canada's Rebel News (formerly The Rebel) run by Ezra Levant. His colleagues included Proud Boy leader Gavin McInnes, who defended Holocaust deniers, and accused the Jews of being responsible for the Holodomor & the Treaty of Versailles...

McInnes said he was "becoming anti-Semitic". and made a video for Rebel called "10 Things I Hate about Jews", later retitled "Ten Things I Hate About Israel".

Another colleague Jack Posobiec, supported Marine Le Pen's election campaign. lobelog.com/gorka-joins-ou…

Later that year, Robinson joined a far-right Polish rally where protesters held "Pray for Islamic Holocaust" signs. He said he had an "amazing" time at a rally calling for a "Jew-free Europe".
thejc.com/news/uk-news/f…

In April 2018, Robinson was in court backing his mate Mark Meechan (Count Dankula), charged for shouting "Sieg Heil” & "Gas the Jews" over and over again on YouTube. Meechan spoke at a rally organised by Robinson a few weeks later. cst.org.uk/data/file/5/5/…

@CST_UK Yaxley-Lennon was jailed that summer for contempt of court due to his persistent disruption of court cases he was obsessed with.

cst.org.uk/news/blog/2018…

In August 2018 (that's just 5 years ago), one of his faithful followers, Austin Ross of Newport, pleaded guilty to setting fire to a school & spray-painting swastikas alongside "Free Tommy Robinson" on a university building. jewishnews.co.uk/far-right-vand…

Oh I missed the fact that Robinson's May 2018 rally - called in the name of the Democratic Football Lads Alliance - at which Dankula spoke also featured Gavin McInnes (see above) and various weird alt-right flags, like this "Kekistan" one modelled on the Nazi flag (inset).

In 2018-19, Robinson got increasingly entangled with fascist group Generation Identity, which preaches the antisemitic "Great Replacement" theory (that says Jews are trying to engineer the demographic eclipse of white Europeans)



dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-…
hopenothate.org.uk/2018/03/19/tom…

@hopenothate @MikeStuchbery_ Robinson delivered a speech written by Martin Sellner, the Austrian leader of Generation Identity, who was refused entry to the UK.

UK GI members travelled to (admittedly comical) paramilitary training camps on Holland.



hopenothate.org.uk/2018/03/19/tom…
newarab.com/news/far-right…

As well as spouting the Great Replacement Theory, Yaxley-Lennon also started talking about "cultural Marxism" (another antisemitic conspiracy theory, based on the Nazi idea of "Kulturbolshewismus").

huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tommy-ro…

A November 2019 investigation by @JewishNewsUK found that Robinson's Facebook groups were chock-a-bloc with antisemitism, particularly conspiracy theories about Soros and "globalists" but also a lot worse @lmharpinthejc.com/news/uk-news/f…

A @hopenothate undercover investigation into Generation Identity found its followers, active in Tommy Robinson's marches and rallies, included military personnel.



theguardian.com/world/2019/aug…
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7…

Robinson's obsession with starting new movement saw him launch Hearts of Oak in Feb 2020 with Carl Benjamin (aka "Sargon of Akkad") and Dr Niall McRae. McRae is obsessed with "cultural Marxism". Benjamin is mainly famous for his horrible comments on Jews.

In 2021, Robinson tried to insert himself into some pro-Israel rallies. The @BoardofDeputies, John Mann and the @JLC_uk all condemned him for this.

https://twitter.com/BoardofDeputies/status/1396475311970258947

Last year, he moved on to yet another far right party, For Britain, another BNP splinter hopenothate.org.uk/2022/03/07/tom…

He also went a long to a boxing match organised by a really hardcore Nazi, Sam Hyde

hopenothate.org.uk/2022/09/12/sam…

Late last year, he went even deeper into Nazi themes, defending Kanye West in a weird post called "The Jewish Question" which is mainly a rant about the ADL's "tentacles""

getthetrollsout.org/troll-of-the-m…

In classic antisemitic style, Robinson portrays an evil hidden network of elite Jews controlling politics (and backing the Democrats). He blames Jews for "condoning anti-whiteness" and for deliberately importing migrants to Europe. He says being clever is the Jews' racial secret.

OK, that took longer than I thought. In conclusion: Tommy Robinson is not an ally against antisemitism, but has maintained hardcore fascist relationships for two decades and increasingly embraced deeply antisemitic ideas. /Ends