{"id":240734,"date":"2025-12-19T09:04:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T09:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/240734\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T09:04:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T09:04:15","slug":"leader-of-britains-right-wing-nationalist-upsurge-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/240734\/","title":{"rendered":"Leader of Britain\u2019s right-wing nationalist upsurge \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is 6.45pm on Friday evening in Belgravia. All around, young Londoners imbibe the Christmas spirit, plus anything else they can procure. Mischief is in the air. Then my phone pings. It\u2019s a voice note from Tommy Robinson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpposite the Houses of Parliament, the opposite side of the river. Be there in an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson (43) is the UK\u2019s most notorious anti-Muslim activist and the street leader of the radical right-wing nationalist upsurge gripping Britain. If Nigel Farage<\/a> is UK nationalism\u2019s pint of beer, Robinson is its whiskey: distilled to greater potency, harder to handle.<\/p>\n

Anyone who can lead hundreds of thousands of radical right-wing protesters on to London\u2019s streets, as he did in September, has tapped into something big. Robinson \u2013 real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon \u2013 is revered by his fans, deplored by his critics. But like it or not, he is a driving force in the race and identity-fuelled tremors roiling Britain.<\/p>\n

I spent weeks convincing him to let me observe him for a day. Tonight\u2019s the night. I soon bid Belgravia\u2019s revellers adieu and head towards Westminster. By 7.30pm, I am pacing the riverside walkway below St Thomas\u2019s hospital.<\/p>\n

The black waters of the Thames shimmer in the yellow lights of Big Ben, directly opposite, as well as the green lights from Westminster Bridge. The retaining wall behind the path is covered in love hearts \u2013 London\u2019s Covid memorial wall.<\/p>\n

\"TommyTommy Robinson opposite the Houses of Parliament in London last weekend. Photograph: Mark Paul <\/p>\n

It seems an incongruous spot to meet Robinson. Eventually I find him and his entourage on the walkway by the bridge. Soon his team get to work, clacking and banging and building a mini scaffold tower.<\/p>\n

Robinson plans to project across the river on to the Houses of Parliament an announcement of the date for his next Unite the Kingdom rally in London \u2013 some time in late spring or early summer. But they must get their projector up before police arrive.<\/p>\n

I have met Robinson before, at a hotel near his Bedfordshire home. Then, he was slightly cagey, suspicious, even provocative. He dislikes mainstream media. \u201cLet\u2019s see if you are one of the w***ers,\u201d he said, annoyed that many journalists label him as far right.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0I was not surprised to see the Irish Tricolour at the Tommy Robinson marchOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

But tonight on the Thames he is friendly enough. Giddy about the stunt, jocular with his team. There are about 25 of them between riggers, technical crew, right-wing YouTubers, videographers and a presenter from Urban Scoop, a media platform he is linked with.<\/p>\n

The team includes about 10 security guards with earpieces, watching everything and everyone. Robinson, who was once part of a football hooligan \u201cfirm\u201d in Luton, is hardly a dainty petal. But there are plenty in Britain who might hurt him if they got the chance.<\/p>\n

I tell Robinson that Britain feels uneasy. It is upset with itself over migration, identity and the very meaning of Britishness. Where is the country going?<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t ask me. If you ask the majority of the British public, they believe it is heading towards civil war,\u201d he says. A YouGov poll last year did not find a majority who believe this, but still, 32 per cent of Britons believed a civil war was likely in the next decade.<\/p>\n

\"ProtestersProtesters at the ‘Unite The Kingdom’ rally in London led by far-right activist Tommy Robinson. Police estimated that between 110,000 and 150,000 people gathered to protest. Photograph: Christopher Furlong\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cDoes that not terrify you? When the majority of the public believe it is heading for civil war, at some point, some of that public will start preparing for civil war. That\u2019s what people think. That\u2019s not my view. That\u2019s government research on their views.\u201d<\/p>\n

I tell him that sort of talk will only frighten some people. He gets more animated, trenchant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are frightened. We\u2019ve got 40,000 Muslims on the terror watch list.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2020, MI5 said about 43,000 people were on the UK\u2019s terror watch list. It does not break out their backgrounds or ideologies. The Daily Telegraph reported that the \u201cvast majority\u201d \u2013 or about 39,000 \u2013 were Islamists, versus a few thousand from the hard right.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got boats full of God knows who coming in. We are frightened. A 15-year-old was taken into Leamington Spa woods and raped by two Afghans. We are frightened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal, both Afghan nationals aged 17, pleaded guilty to that attack in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you got daughters? I\u2019ve got two,\u201d says Robinson.<\/p>\n

He alleges a tenfold increase in rapes in the UK from 2003 to 2023, correlating with Muslim immigration. Statistics show police-reported cases did rise more than fivefold in that time in England and Wales. Experts say much of the rise was due to more willingness to report. More than 85 per cent of women victims are attacked by men known to them.<\/p>\n

Robinson goes through a raft of complaints about migrants, especially Muslims from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia. He wants immigration to Britain halted from Muslim-majority countries, aping a favoured policy of US president Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\"AA participant at a Christmas-themed religious gathering in London organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson. Photograph: Ilyas Tayfun Salci\/Anadolu\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Many trends in Britain\u2019s current right-wing nationalist upsurge ape Trump\u2019s Maga movement \u2013 the growing links to UK evangelical Christian nationalists; support from tech oligarchs such as Elon Musk, who has paid for lawyers for Robinson.<\/p>\n

Robinson says UK politicians \u201cdeny the will of the people\u201d. Yet Britain had an election last year \u2013 a Labour landslide win. But Farage\u2019s Reform UK is now way ahead in polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can do this democratically. We don\u2019t want trouble,\u201d Robinson says. \u201cWe\u2019ve got so many friends in Northern Ireland who say \u2018the last thing you want to go through is what we went through\u2019. But that\u2019s where politicians are taking us. They\u2019re winding us up.\u201d<\/p>\n

As quickly as Robinson gets on his soapbox, he steps off it and his demeanour lightens again. The whole point of projecting on to parliament \u2013 illegal under planning laws \u2013 is to bring Unite The Kingdom\u2019s campaign to \u201cthe people\u2019s house\u201d. But it isn\u2019t going well.<\/p>\n

They are more than an hour into the operation, and the tech guys can\u2019t get the projector to focus on the parliamentary buildings across the river. They Google the equipment for clues. All the while, the loud thrum of the hired generator attracts unwanted attention while passersby stare at the hastily erected scaffold and lights.<\/p>\n

A young woman walking the path recognises Robinson. She complains to me in harsh terms about his alleged attitudes towards people of different races. Yet I note his right-hand man at the river, his old English Defence League buddy Guramit Singh, is a Sikh. The Urban Scoop film-maker, Brother Wendell, is a black man. The next day, I will meet tens of Robinson\u2019s allies who are of different colours and backgrounds. But no Muslims.<\/p>\n

While the tech guys battle the equipment, I speak to a Korea-born, Scotland-raised anti-Muslim right-wing influencer, Ryan Williams, who is along for the ride. He is infamous for wearing strips of bacon on his shirt in a Sky News interview about Islam. His social media handle is Leavethegoatsalone.<\/p>\n

\"RyanRyan Williams, an online influencer who is known for his criticisms of Islam, standing at the river Thames as Robinson’s associates tried to project on to the Houses of Parliament. Photograph: Mark Paul <\/p>\n

Williams, also a talented cellist, says he met Robinson through Turning Point, the assassinated US activist Charlie Kirk\u2019s organisation. Williams\u2019s views on Islam seem even harsher than Robinson\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the British people have had enough. British culture should be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The police finally arrive after an hour and 20 minutes. Giggles quietly ripple through Robinson\u2019s team. The two officers look like twins, both aged in their 20s with identical moustaches. For Robinson\u2019s crew, it looks like they\u2019ve been sent from so-called \u201cwoke\u201d central casting.<\/p>\n

Robinson and Singh try to fob them off. The officers go off to check the law with their superiors. The team\u2019s discreet laughter grows to guffaws.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen moustaches like it. I thought it was a comedy act,\u201d says Robinson, barely able to breathe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was f**king Hale and Pace,\u201d roars one of his associates.<\/p>\n

More senior officers return. Eventually, Robinson\u2019s team gives up on the projection \u2013 they only managed to land a Union Jack on the building, not the slide with the rally date.<\/p>\n

\"TommyTommy Robinson opposite the Houses of Parliament in London. Photograph: Mark Paul <\/p>\n

Robinson tells his crew to pack the gear, while he films a piece with Urban Scoop which includes a direct appeal by the interviewer to Musk to attend Unite The Kingdom\u2019s next big protest.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the day after the projection, on Saturday afternoon, Robinson and a bunch of evangelical Christian nationalists are organising a Christmas carol event in Whitehall. They say they\u2019ll \u201cput the Christ back into Christmas\u201d because, they allege, Britain\u2019s Christian cultural heritage has been eroded.<\/p>\n

Robinson tells me he embraced God earlier this year while in prison for contempt. \u201cFor a long time I was searching for something, but I couldn\u2019t find it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says Saturday\u2019s crowd will be small \u201cbut beautiful\u201d. He insists the event is non-political. Before I leave for the night, he asks me to meet him, before the carols, at 10am near King\u2019s Road in Chelsea, to join a planning meeting over breakfast with his team.<\/p>\n

I am on the King\u2019s Road by 9.30am, but Robinson isn\u2019t answering messages. I check every cafe I can find in the area. No joy. It is the ghosting of Christmas present.<\/p>\n

I retire to the Mona Lisa cafe in the working-class World\u2019s End district of Chelsea. I look around at the locals wolfing bacon and beans, wondering how many support Robinson.<\/p>\n

I get to Whitehall by noon. There is a very heavy police presence. The street is split into three, separated by impassable barriers. Robinson\u2019s Unite The Kingdom Christmas carols event is in the middle section, sandwiched between a left-wing anti-racist counter-protest near parliament and a libertarian\/right-wing anti-digital ID protest up nearer Trafalgar Square.<\/p>\n

Media report the Unite The Kingdom carols crowd at 1,000, but I suspect it may have been double that. Many are clearly nationalists, draped in St George flags or Union Jacks. But some are clearly Christians of an evangelical or born again bent. One carries a huge wooden cross.<\/p>\n

\"AA band plays during a Christmas carol service in Whitehall, London, organised by Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom movement on Saturday, December 13th. Photograph: Jonathan Brady\/PA \"SomeSome of those attending Saturday’s Christmas carol event in Whitehall, organised by Tommy Robinson. Photograph: Justin Tallis\/AFP\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Some emit a fervour, such as the three women sitting on a wall outside the cabinet office, singing Christian rock songs with eyes closed for an hour. Others chant \u201cChrist is king\u201d. A few men call out for Robinson to the air of an old football chant.<\/p>\n

Ian (81) is from Portsmouth. He was at the big UTK event last September. He says he has come to the carols events to defend Christian culture, even though he is an atheist himself. \u201cI don\u2019t believe in any of that stuff. But Christian values built Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0If Nigel Farage wins the next UK election, the consequences for Ireland will be profoundOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Echoing Robinson from the previous night, he believes strife and conflict is coming to Britain. \u201cAnd civil war is better than serfdom.\u201d He is angry over Covid lockdowns.<\/p>\n

There is a frisson as Robinson arrives at about 1.20pm. I spot an Urban Scoop presenter from the previous night, an influencer known as Lauren the Insider. She seeks out Robinson to ask if I can join his entourage backstage, a roped-off makeshift VIP area.<\/p>\n

Suddenly I am in the midst of a private gathering of high-profile senior figures in Britain\u2019s radical right-wing fraternity, including its English nationalist and Christian wings.<\/p>\n

I see Robinson\u2019s long-time political associate, Liam Tuffs. I spot another of his close friends, activist Danny Tommo. Nearby is Ceirion Dewar, a charismatic missionary bishop of the breakaway Confessing Anglican Church. Dewar gives fiery religious speeches at Robinson\u2019s events \u2013 his speech at Unite The Kingdom in September went viral.<\/p>\n

\"BishopBishop Ceirion Dewar gives a speech during the event. Photograph: Andrea Domeniconi\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

There is Fr Phil Harris, an Anglo-Catholic priest who fell out with church hierarchy over a controversial speech he gave about the Southport riots in 2024. I spot Danny Roscoe, a right-wing influencer. I also speak to Dean Rohail, a Pakistani convert to Christianity, now a chaplain who preaches Christian nationalism. <\/p>\n

\"DeanDean Sohail, a Pakistani convert to Christianity who now works as a chaplain, and who was backstage at Robinson’s event. Photograph: Mark Paul <\/p>\n

I also see \u201cYoung Bob\u201d, one of the most popular radical nationalist YouTubers in Britain. The last time I saw him, he was being arrested at the Aston Villa versus Maccabi Tel Aviv football match in Birmingham. He says they released him after five hours.<\/p>\n

Backstage, it is all beginning to feel like a 2020 US-style Maga-evangelical event.<\/p>\n

Robinson just laughs when I ask where he was on King\u2019s Road in the morning. But he elaborates about finding God. He was born and raised in Luton as a Catholic \u2013 his mother is from Dublin. But he drifted away from the church as a youngster.<\/p>\n

Does he consider himself Catholic now?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I feel betrayed by the Catholic church. I listened to the pope recently. Did you? He\u2019s not my pope.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Britain\u2019s divided and disenfranchised goad each other at Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv matchOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

On Saturday, England\u2019s traditional Anglican churches criticise the growing closeness of Robinson\u2019s nationalist events to evangelical Christianity. He retorts that the churches\u2019 \u201cweakness\u201d is why Anglican churches are \u201cempty\u201d and \u201cmuscular Christianity\u201d is coming instead.<\/p>\n

Robinson insists he became religious in prison due to the influence of \u201ca pastor\u201d who spoke to him in his cell, where he had been in solitary confinement. \u201cI realised that everything comes from the bible. And I\u2019m a sinner. And Jesus was close to sinners.\u201d<\/p>\n

The religious figure who visited Robinson in his cell was Rikki Doolan, a Pentecostal pastor who has known Robinson since 2018. Wearing slicked-back hair and a long beard, Doolan, a self-confessed former \u201chopeless addict\u201d, is also at the Whitehall event.<\/p>\n

I ask him what happened with Robinson. He says they first started talking about politics in his cell, then switched to the gospel. \u201cWe spoke about the Christian heritage of this nation and I told him about salvation, what it means to be saved. I asked him if he wanted to do the prayer of salvation. He had no hesitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RobinsonRobinson praying backstage with his associates before the event in Whitehall kicked off. Photograph: Mark Paul <\/p>\n

I watch Robinson take part in a group prayer service before the Whitehall event kicks off. The running order includes traditional Christmas carols, evangelical gospel songs, fiery sermons from Dewar and others, and a speech to the crowd by Robinson. He says the event is \u201cthe most beautiful moment\u201d he has ever experienced in his activism.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, he is mobbed by autograph and selfie hunters. I watch one woman break down in tears as she thanks him \u201cfor everything you have done\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TommyTommy Robinson delivers a speech at a Unite the Kingdom Christmas event. Photograph: Ben Montgomery\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

In the evening, Robinson turns to me before he leaves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell? What did you think of that? Did you think that was \u2018far right\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

I tell him that I think the event went well from his perspective.<\/p>\n

His security team sweep him away from the enthusiastic fans trying to get a piece of him. One way or another, Robinson always needs to be saved.<\/p>\n

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