London Tommy Robinson is the leader of the English extreme right and a convicted fraudster with a violent criminal history. He has inspired gatherings of primarily white, male supporters who yell anti-Islamic and anti-immigration soccer-style chants.
Seeing Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, become the newest cause supported by Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet, was startling to many Britons at the time.
Tommy Robinson should be free! Donald Trump’s adviser and multibillionaire businessman shared a post on his X social media network on Thursday.
Due to a defamatory film in which he falsely claimed a Syrian refugee adolescent was a violent thug, Robinson, 42, is currently serving an 18-month jail sentence for contempt of court.
Robinson is widely despised in Britain, and according to the most recent data released in October by the British polling firm YouGov, his approval rating of 19% is even lower than Musk’s at 26%.
“But if people adopt him, he will become less fringe, and that’s the risk you have here,” said Scott Lucas, a professor of British and American politics at University College Dublin. Musk is aware that Tommy is a figurehead for some far-right organizations.
This is by no means Musk’s first foray into European politics; since supporting Trump’s election victory in November, he has expressed more and more opinions on the matter. Most recently in Germany, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla has been a strong supporter of far-right nationalists. Trump’s second term has coincided with their ascent on the continent, raising the possibility of transatlantic cooperation among this formerly marginalized political group.
However, Musk has paid the most attention in Britain.
In sharp contrast to domestic criticism, which has frequently accused the prime minister of being too centrist and selling up his Marxist credentials, he has accused Keir Starmer in recent months of running a totalitarian police state and going full Stalin.
Following the August killings of three girls in the northern beach resort of Southport, which caused massive riots spearheaded by the far right, Musk also prophesied that Britain will plunge into civil war. False rumors about their supposed killer on X, including by Musk himself, were partially held responsible for the disorder by both lawmakers and police.
Additionally, Musk backed a request on Friday for King Charles III to dissolve Parliament, something he technically has the authority to do but hasn’t done so in Britain’s constitutional monarchy against a prime minister’s desires in nearly 200 years.
According to Sunder Katwala, head of the think group British Future, many people viewed this as nothing more than trolling and muppetry on X.
However, more people are taking notice of Musk’s contact with Robinson. Musk began responding to Robinson on X in August, but last week, when he started blogging about the grooming gang situation in Britain, he really stepped it up.
Groups of primarily men had routinely lured and raped young girls, according to ten-year investigations into gangs in British cities and provincial towns.
Although research indicates that the majority of group-based child sexual exploitation offenders are white, a 2023 British government study found that some of these gangs were founded by men of Pakistani descent, which infuriated far-right and Conservative politicians.
Tommy Robinson said the truth, so why is he in solitary confinement? Musk said on Wednesday that he ought to be released and that the people who concealed this absurdity ought to be put in the jail with him.
However, Robinson’s incarceration in October is only his most recent run-in with the law.
He was initially imprisoned in 2005 for attacking a police officer who was not on duty, and in 2011 he was mandated to perform community service after inciting a fight that involved over 100 soccer supporters. He was imprisoned again in 2013 for traveling to the United States on another person s passport, then again a year later for mortgage fraud.
Robinson, who took his pseudonym from a soccer hooligan, was also given a five-year stalking protection order in October 2021 after he shouted abuse outside the home of a journalist having learned she was planning a story about him.
Under the conditions of the order, he was prohibited from contacting the journalist or attending any places where the person lives and works, unless specifically invited for an interview.
During that time, he co-founded the English Defence League, or EDL, which rose out of a disparate network of far-right groups and whose virulently Islamophobic views were praised by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.
I d personally send every adult male Muslim that has come into the E.U. over the past 12 months back tomorrow if I could, Robinson said in 2016, and he has described Islam as fascist,according to the anti-extremism group Hope Not Hate.
He has also hinted at violent retribution. In 2011, he said that the the Islamic community will feel the full force of the English Defence League if we see any of our British citizens killed, maimed, or hurt on British soil ever again.
Robinson is no longer associated with the EDL and has repeatedly stated that he is not racist or Islamophobic.
In addition to his support for Robinson, Musk has also professed support for Nigel Farage, the British Trump ally who leads the anti-immigration Reform UK party. Farage said that Musk has given serious thought to making a donation to his political group. While certainly hard right, Reform, which has five parliamentary lawmakers, is considered a far more mainstream force than Robinson.
Some pundits have suggested that Musk s endorsement of Robinson could harm Farage, who has sought to distance himself from the former EDL man. But can Musk s apparent fixation with British and European politics actually make a difference there?
We don t know, and that s the question, said Lucas at University College Dublin, who added that he believed that renewed focus on immigration a democratic trend sweeping Europe has at least opened the door.
What we know is that British politics has already been damaged, he said. So there s an opportunity for him to move the needle.
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