Stephen Yaxley-Lennon
| Tommy Robinson | |
|---|---|
Tommy Robinson in October 2015
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| Born |
Stephen Christopher Yaxley 27 November 1982 Luton, England |
| Residence | Luton, Bedfordshire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Citizenship | British |
| Occupation | Tanning salon owner |
| Years active | 2009 – present |
| Known for | Former leader of the English Defence League and European Defence League |
| Political party |
British National Party (2004-05) British Freedom Party (2012) |
| Movement |
European Defence League (2010 - 2013) Pegida UK (2016 - present) |
Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon (born 27 November 1982), known by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson and also going by the names Andrew McMaster and Paul Harris, is the co-founder and former spokesman and leader of the English Defence League (EDL) "street protest" movement. He also founded the European Defence League, and for a short time in 2012 was joint party vice-chairman of the British Freedom Party. He led the EDL from 2009 until 8 October 2013, when he was persuaded to leave the organisation and discuss alternative ways of tackling extremism with the think tank Quilliam. He continued as an activist, and in 2015 became involved with the development of Pegida UK, a British chapter of the German-based Pegida organisation, presenting a stated purpose to counter the "Islamisation of our countries".
Robinson was born Stephen Christopher Yaxley in Luton. Robinson told Victoria Derbyshire on BBC Radio Five live in 2010, “both of my parents were Irish immigrants to this country”. His mother, who worked at a local bakery, remarried when Stephen was still young; his stepfather, Thomas Lennon, worked at the local Vauxhall car plant.
According to Robinson, after he left school he applied to study aircraft engineering at Luton Airport: "I got an apprenticeship six hundred people applied for, and they took four people on." He qualified in 2003 after five years' study, but then was convicted for drunken assault of an off-duty police officer who, according to Searchlight magazine, had intervened to stop a domestic incident between Robinson (then called Lennon) and his girlfriend Jenna Vowles. Robinson served a 12-month prison sentence, and as a result lost his job at Luton Airport owing to security measures imposed since the September 11 attacks.
Robinson joined the British National Party in 2004. When questioned about this by the BBC's Andrew Neil in June 2013, he claimed that he had left after one year, saying, "I didn't know Nick Griffin was in the National Front, I didn't know non-whites couldn't join the organisation. I joined, I saw what it was about, it was not for me".
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