Who is Tommy Robinson? The Karl Stefanovic guest who may have cost Australia’s famed TV host his job

The man who calls himself Tommy Robinson has roared into prominence in Australia after the morning TV mainstay Karl Stefanovic posted an interview with Robinson for his podcast.Robinson’s politics are well known in the UK and Europe, but he has a far lower profile here. So who is the man whose very presence in an interview may have cost Australia’s highest-paid TV personality his job?Who is Tommy Robinson?His legal name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. He took the name of Tommy Robinson from a Luton Town football hooligan to disguise his identity and previous convictions.The 43-year-old father of three is an anti-Islamic, far-right political activist, and has been a key figure behind actions like the “Unite the Kingdom” march in London last year.How did Tommy Robinson rise to prominence? Robinson moved into activism when he lost his job as an engineering apprentice after assaulting a police officer who tried to intervene to protect Robinson’s girlfriend, with whom Robinson was fighting in the street.He founded the avowedly Islamophobic English Defence League in 2009, which held rallies around the country. Robinson was convicted of assault again in 2011, for head-butting a man at a demonstration in Birmingham.Since leaving the EDL, Robinson has rebranded himself as an independent journalist, writing for the conspiracy theory-peddling outlet Rebel News.He has focused on sexual grooming gangs, and has repeated his central trope that Muslims in Britain had been “terrorising our country for decades”.Robinson has continued to accrue convictions, and has declared bankruptcy. He has been convicted for violence, public order offences, as well as financial and immigration frauds.He also has convictions for stalking and harassing journalists and has twice been convicted for contempt of court.He was jailed in 2024 for repeating false claims about a 15-year-old Syrian refugee in defiance of a court injunction.What are Tommy Robinson’s politics?Robinson’s platform is Islamophobic, and he has repeatedly called for Muslims to be removed from Britain. He has described Muslims as “filthy scumbags” and called for people to “make war” on Islam.His rhetoric often speculates on violence, while stopping short of direct incitement.During the civil unrest in the UK after the 2025 Southport stabbings – in which three young girls were killed and 10 others injured – Robinson said the attack was “more evidence to suggest Islam is a mental health issue than a religion of peace”, and he amplified false claims online the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker.The attacker was British born and not a Muslim.Robinson often speaks in coded language, using words such as “native” to mean white people. He uses the term “invader” to describe non-white populations, and promotes “remigration” – a white supremacist policy of removing non-white citizens from European countries.He also once owned a tanning salon.Who is Tommy Robinson connected to?A key element of Robinson’s political persona is his self-promotion as a man of the people from the UK’s ignored working class, a representative of what he describes as the “real Britain” under threat from multiculturalism.But Robinson has also worked as an adviser to populist Ukip MEP Gerard Batten, and has been funded by billionaires to file reports for Rebel News. He has appeared alongside Elon Musk at rallies, and – having been consistently denied a visa to the US (after trying to enter the country on a false passport) – was hosted by the Trump administration in early 2026.He has also been hosted by the Israeli government – outraging some neo-Nazi supporters – and has been a vocal supporter of Russia, including its invasion of Ukraine. He toured the country in 2020 claiming to be a victim of western censorship and praising Putin’s totalitarian regime.Nigel Farage, the banker turned Brexiteer turned Reform MP, has said he would not be welcome in his party. Boris Johnson called him a “far-right thug”.Why has Karl Stefanovic’s interview with Tommy Robinson caused trouble?Part of it was simply giving an hour of almost uninterrupted airtime to a man of such controversial opinions, allowing him an unchallenged platform to repeat falsehoods, including lies for which he has previously been found to be in contempt of court.In a video posted to and later deleted from social media, Karl Stefanovic is seen slinging his arm around the shoulders of Tommy Robinson. Photograph: The Karl Stefanovic Show/FacebookThis was exacerbated by Stefanovic’s credulity. His interview did not rebut or confront anything Robinson said.“It’s great to speak with you in person. I really do admire your tenacity and the courage that you’re showing in trying to stand up for what you believe is right,” Stefanovic told Robinson at the end of the podcast.Robinson also weighed into the politics of Australia (a country he has twice been refused a visa to visit), saying he admired Pauline Hanson as someone who had defended him “from that side of the world”.“Looking at her rise, do you know how happy I am for her? Because she’s been through what I’ve been through. She’s been condemned, attacked, battered, every name under the sun. And here she is. She’s carried on against all of that backlash.“I’m a man. It’s not easy. So for a woman, the amount of slander, the amount of horrible, disgusting things she’s had said about her. She just carried on fighting. And the truth comes out in the end.”