Stephen Yaxley-Lennon

Met police accused of favouring Tommy Robinson far-right rally over Palestine march

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/10/met-police-tommy-robinson-far-right-protest-palestine-march-london

A protester faces off with Met riot police during a previous ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally in London in September. Photograph: James Willoughby/Sopa Images/Shutterstock

Celebrities including Annie Lennox and Miriam Margolyes sign letter to force after pro-Palestine march route rejected

Annie Lennox and Miriam Margolyes are among artists who have accused the Metropolitan police of giving preferential treatment to a far-right demonstration led by Tommy Robinson over a pro-Palestine protest in London on the same day.

The pro-Palestine movement has had its preferred route through central London for its annual commemoration of Nakba – the mass expulsion of Palestinians – rejected by the Met, while the “Unite the Kingdom” demonstration will take place on the same date in Kingsway, the Strand, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Parliament Square. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, posted on X: “London is ours on May 16th.”

An open letter saying that the Met “must not favour the far right over Palestine” has also been signed by the actors Samuel West and Khalid Abdalla, the musicians Billy Bragg and Nadine Shah, as well as MPs, academics, lawyers, trade union and civil society leaders. The Met said the decision was based on the relative scale of the demonstrations.

Billy Howle, who starred in the TV shows The Perfect Couple and The Serpent and also signed the letter, said: “The shocking decision of the police to exclusively favour a far-right demonstration and block this important annual commemoration from the political heart of London will send shivers down the spines of every person of good conscience. It must be overturned.”

The letter says that the pro-Palestine movement informed the force on 18 December of its intention to march on the nearest Saturday to Nakba Day, in keeping with a tradition dating back more than a decade, but that the Met has “instead given over the political centre of London to a hate march called by racist thug ‘Tommy Robinson’”. It calls on the force to “immediately reverse this shameful decision”.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/10/met-police-tommy-robinson-far-right-protest-palestine-march-london

Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage's chasing the racist bigot vote.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage’s chasing the racist bigot vote.
Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it's simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it’s simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
Nigel Farage blames the Muzzies.
Nigel Farage blames the Muzzies.
Continue ReadingMet police accused of favouring Tommy Robinson far-right rally over Palestine march

Something inside so wrong: Labi Siffre tells Tommy Robinson to stop using anti-apartheid anthem

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Siffre says he wrote the song in 1984 because he felt compelled to say something about apartheid. 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/sep/28/labi-siffre-cease-and-desist-letter-tommy-robinson-anti-apartheid-anthem-something-inside-so-strong

Exclusive: UK singer, 80, says it is ‘absurd’ as a ‘positive atheist, homosexual black artist’ for far right to claim his work

For decades, Labi Siffre’s hit (Something Inside) So Strong has been a global anthem against apartheid. It was inspired by a documentary about apartheid-era South Africa, and was widely reported to be Nelson Mandela’s favourite song.

But now the singer-songwriter has taken the step of issuing Tommy Robinson with a cease and desist order after the far-right activist incorporated the song into his social media posts and used it at the recent “unite the kingdom” rally in central London.

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The musician and his publisher, BMG Rights Management, have issued the cease and desist order to Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, against the unauthorised use of his work. “They’re breaking all sorts of copyrights,” Siffre says. “Even in an era when theft is easier than it ever was, it’s still theft.”

During his rally earlier this month, which was attended by more than 110,000 people, Robinson invited a former X Factor contestant to sing (Something Inside) So Strong. “I always like telling stories through music and this next song now is going to tell all of our stories of why we’re here and why we care,” Robinson said.

Last year, the activist also posted the lyrics of the song to his X account, after allegedly fleeing the country after committing contempt of court.

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“I had just seen this documentary of white soldiers [in South Africa] shooting at black people in the street indiscriminately. I knew I wanted to write a song about apartheid,” he recalls.

“One evening, late, I found myself in my studio sat down at the keyboard. I played a C chord, put my head back, and immediately, without thinking, I sang the first two lines of the song. It just came out. I had a tear in my eye and realised that I was writing about my life as a homosexual child, a homosexual youth, a homosexual man, and the battle that that entailed.”

But when he finished the song, Siffre says he realised it was for “just about anyone who had a battle to fight. Even if it was a small battle that day at work, or a small problem in their relationships. Its relevance was even wider than my life as a homosexual, or apartheid.

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Original article at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/sep/28/labi-siffre-cease-and-desist-letter-tommy-robinson-anti-apartheid-anthem-something-inside-so-strong

Continue ReadingSomething inside so wrong: Labi Siffre tells Tommy Robinson to stop using anti-apartheid anthem

Morning Star Editorial: The left must understand and challenge the right’s demagogy

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/left-must-understand-and-challenge-rights-demagogy

 People taking part in a Tommy Robinson-led Unite the Kingdom march and rally in Trafalgar Square, central London, September 13, 2025

WELL over 100,000 people gathered in London last weekend under the banner of “Tommy Robinson” — actually Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — a notorious and violent fascist and grifter, with several criminal convictions.

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The racist core of Robinson’s support is a small minority in most communities, and its attempt to stir up violence generally falls flat.

Saturday’s rally was actually called not to protest about the arrival of asylum-seekers on our shores, the issue which Reform’s Nigel Farage had been majoring on all summer. Its main theme was, ostensibly, “free speech.”

And underlying it was certainly an expression of popular powerlessness and national decline, sentiments which powered the Brexit vote in 2016 but which have only been exacerbated since, since the assertion of sovereignty does not in itself guarantee that it will be wielded to any good effect.

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In reality, the left has always focused on winning arguments rather than banning contrary views, but it needs to double down on that approach today as part of the general defence of democracy.

The particular argument it urgently needs to prevail in today is the responsibility for the national malaise affecting so many areas of ordinary people’s lives. It is not down to the impoverished refugees arriving by boat.

It is down to the ruling class and the global super-rich, seen fawning on the leader of the far right internationally, Donald Trump, in Windsor Castle this week.

It is they who have spent 15 years slashing living standards to protect profits, who squeeze public services dry to promote private interests, and who slash support for the neediest the better to fund their imperialist aggression abroad.

What Farage and Robinson are doing is, in large part, a manoeuvre of deflection. Farage is himself a very wealthy Thatcherite, while Robinson is the well-funded plaything of the multibillionaire manchild Elon Musk. Their populist demagogy is just a mask.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/left-must-understand-and-challenge-rights-demagogy

Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it's simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it’s simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage's chasing the racist bigot vote.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage’s chasing the racist bigot vote.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: The left must understand and challenge the right’s demagogy

Far-right London rally sees record crowds and violent clashes with police

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/sep/13/unite-the-kingdom-far-right-rally-london-tommy-robinson-police-assaulted

More than 110,000 people join Tommy Robinson-organised protest featuring racist conspiracy theories and hate speech

More than 110,000 people have taken part in a far-right street protest organised by the activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, in what is thought to be the largest nationalist event in decades.

Marchers travelled to London by train and coach for a demonstration, which was billed as a “festival of free speech”, but by its conclusion had amplified racist conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim hate speech across Whitehall.

The scale of the protest vastly outgrew police estimates resulting in tense and at times violent clashes between protesters and police.

The Metropolitan police said at least 25 people were arrested and 26 officers were injured, including four who were seriously hurt. Marchers were arrested for a range of offences, including affray, violent disorder, assaults and criminal damage.

The crowds were addressed by Elon Musk, who dialled in via video link and spoke of “the rapidly increasing erosion of Britain”, before calling for the dissolution of the UK parliament.

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Continues at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/sep/13/unite-the-kingdom-far-right-rally-london-tommy-robinson-police-assaulted

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it's simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it’s simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage's chasing the racist bigot vote.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage’s chasing the racist bigot vote.
Continue ReadingFar-right London rally sees record crowds and violent clashes with police

How a Mail on Sunday Story About a Non-Existent ‘Migrant Crime Wave’ Led to an Anti-Migrant Protest

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https://novaramedia.com/2025/08/01/how-a-mail-on-sunday-story-about-a-non-existent-migrant-crime-wave-led-to-an-anti-migrant-protest

A demonstrator holds a Union Jack flag, during an anti-immigration protest outside the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf, London, Britain, July 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy

‘My concern is the safety of bringing fascism to my neighborhood.’

Earlier this month, the Mail on Sunday claimed to reveal “the shocking scale of serious crime committed by migrants living in hotels in communities across Britain”.

The newspaper’s investigation claimed that the scale of a “migrant crime wave” had “until now been unknown”. It showed that at least 312 asylum seekers have been charged with an “astonishing” 708 alleged criminal offences in just three years.

The investigation was endorsed by shadow home secretary Chris Philp. Scratch its surface and all it reveals is the prejudice of the Mail, campaigners say.

They point out that the Mail’s figures include innocent people who’ve been acquitted, as well as those yet to be found guilty of any crime. They add that the 312 who’ve been charged represent a fraction of the tens of thousands of people who have passed through asylum accommodation in the three years reported on by the Mail.

“Describing this as a ‘migrant crime wave’ is not only completely dishonest but incredibly dangerous, at a time when families forced to live in asylum hotels are being threatened on their doorstep by violent crowds,” Nathan Phillips, head of campaigns at migrant charity Asylum Matters, told Novara Media.

By this point, it was too late. The Mail’s scaremongering appears to have had a direct role in sparking at least one anti-migrant protest, due to take place on Saturday. The protest has been endorsed by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon AKA Tommy Robinson, currently in Tenerife while police investigate his alleged assault of a man at St Pancras station.

Alongside its piece on the migrant “crime wave”, the Mail published an accompanying report focusing on the number of crimes linked to one hotel that also houses asylum seekers: the Barbican Thistle in Islington, north London. The day after the article was published, a Facebook group sprang up organising a protest at the accommodation, carrying the Mail’s headline as its header image.

The Mail’s report on the Barbican Thistle said that 41 residents of the hotel had been charged with 90 crimes over the past three years. Once again, the sensationalist framing only told part of the story. A coalition of local residents, community groups and anti-racist campaigners who are opposing Saturday’s demonstration called the Mail’s claims “inflammatory, misleading, and politically motivated.”

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Article continues at https://novaramedia.com/2025/08/01/how-a-mail-on-sunday-story-about-a-non-existent-migrant-crime-wave-led-to-an-anti-migrant-protest

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingHow a Mail on Sunday Story About a Non-Existent ‘Migrant Crime Wave’ Led to an Anti-Migrant Protest