- Moderator
- #101
Who is Tommy Robinson, why did the ex-EDL leader change his name and when was he jailed?
Who is Tommy Robinson
Tommy Robinson, 35, is a right-wing political activist from Luton, Bedfordshire.
His mother was an Irish immigrant who worked as a baker while his adoptive father worked at a local Vauxhall car plant.
He told the Telegraph in 2013: "Everyone in Luton is the son of immigrants. Whether it be Irish, West Indian, Ghanaian, everyone I know.”
Despite performing well academically at school, Robinson repeatedly found himself in trouble as a teenager, citing fights with "Muslim gangs" as one of the reasons for his "problems" as a youth.
Robinson is the former leader of the English Defence League (EDL), a far-right street protest movement.
The group – which the former British National Party (BNP) member co-founded in 2009 – are opposed to the spread of “militant Islam”.
He also has a criminal record with convictions for a number of offences, including football-related violence, trying to travel on false documents and a protest against Fifa’s decision to stop the England football team wearing poppies on their shirts.
He has been to prison on multiple occasions including in 2014 for mortgage fraud.
After studying aircraft engineering for five years, Robinson lost his job at Luton Airport in 2003 after punching an off-duty police officer during a drunken row.
He claims that stricter security measures following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, meant he has been blacklisted from working at airports.
Robinson was captured on film repeatedly punching a man in the head at Royal Ascot.
The activist was banned from Twitter on March 28, 2018, for breaching the social media platform's "hateful conduct" policy.
This guy is no angel or martyr. If he didn’t hate Muslims y’all would be saying good riddance to bad trash.
Who is Tommy Robinson
Tommy Robinson, 35, is a right-wing political activist from Luton, Bedfordshire.
His mother was an Irish immigrant who worked as a baker while his adoptive father worked at a local Vauxhall car plant.
He told the Telegraph in 2013: "Everyone in Luton is the son of immigrants. Whether it be Irish, West Indian, Ghanaian, everyone I know.”
Despite performing well academically at school, Robinson repeatedly found himself in trouble as a teenager, citing fights with "Muslim gangs" as one of the reasons for his "problems" as a youth.
Robinson is the former leader of the English Defence League (EDL), a far-right street protest movement.
The group – which the former British National Party (BNP) member co-founded in 2009 – are opposed to the spread of “militant Islam”.
He also has a criminal record with convictions for a number of offences, including football-related violence, trying to travel on false documents and a protest against Fifa’s decision to stop the England football team wearing poppies on their shirts.
He has been to prison on multiple occasions including in 2014 for mortgage fraud.
After studying aircraft engineering for five years, Robinson lost his job at Luton Airport in 2003 after punching an off-duty police officer during a drunken row.
He claims that stricter security measures following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, meant he has been blacklisted from working at airports.
Robinson was captured on film repeatedly punching a man in the head at Royal Ascot.
The activist was banned from Twitter on March 28, 2018, for breaching the social media platform's "hateful conduct" policy.
This guy is no angel or martyr. If he didn’t hate Muslims y’all would be saying good riddance to bad trash.