Tommy Robinson Speech at the Oxford Union in 2014

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon
is better known as ‘Tommy Robinson’, the former leader of the English Defence League. He is regarded by some as a champion of freedom and a martyr for truth, but reviled by others as an Islamophobe, if not a racist.

Huw Spanner met him in the East End of London, within spitting distance of Cable Street, on 11 September 2020.

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Spoiling for a Fight
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon
is better known as ‘Tommy Robinson’, the former leader of the English Defence League. He is regarded by some as a champion of freedom and a martyr for truth, but reviled by others as an Islamophobe, if not a racist.

Huw Spanner met him in the East End of London, within spitting distance of Cable Street, on 11 September 2020.

Photography: High Profiles

I was impressed by the speech you gave at the Oxford Union in 2014…1
D’you know what, that was the first time in five years of activism that I had an opportunity to speak. I’d been invited onto many TV shows and everything was a gotcha moment about racism or the behaviour of an English Defence League supporter. I’d just come out of jail, after 22 weeks, and that was my first opportunity to say: ‘OK, this is who I am. This is where I’ve grown up. I know it’s different to where many other people have grown up, but…’

That being Luton, in Bedfordshire. A recent online discussion described it as ‘a shithole’. Someone wrote: ‘Never in my entire life have I been to a town so devoid of any type of history, culture or community.’2
Is that fair?

One-million-per-cent fair. You know what, I loved that town and I fought for it, but now I despise it. I drive around it. I speak to people who get the train, they say they close their eyes when they go through Luton.

Luton was a fabulous town. It was rough, but what it’s become, the level of violence, the criminality, all of the problems – and there’s a lot that aren’t [down to] Islam…

BiographyAudio Clip
Tweet
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Spoiling for a Fight
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon
is better known as ‘Tommy Robinson’, the former leader of the English Defence League. He is regarded by some as a champion of freedom and a martyr for truth, but reviled by others as an Islamophobe, if not a racist.

Huw Spanner met him in the East End of London, within spitting distance of Cable Street, on 11 September 2020.

Photography: High Profiles

I was impressed by the speech you gave at the Oxford Union in 2014…1
D’you know what, that was the first time in five years of activism that I had an opportunity to speak. I’d been invited onto many TV shows and everything was a gotcha moment about racism or the behaviour of an English Defence League supporter. I’d just come out of jail, after 22 weeks, and that was my first opportunity to say: ‘OK, this is who I am. This is where I’ve grown up. I know it’s different to where many other people have grown up, but…’

That being Luton, in Bedfordshire. A recent online discussion described it as ‘a shithole’. Someone wrote: ‘Never in my entire life have I been to a town so devoid of any type of history, culture or community.’2
Is that fair?

One-million-per-cent fair. You know what, I loved that town and I fought for it, but now I despise it. I drive around it. I speak to people who get the train, they say they close their eyes when they go through Luton.

Luton was a fabulous town. It was rough, but what it’s become, the level of violence, the criminality, all of the problems – and there’s a lot that aren’t [down to] Islam…

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‘Despise’ is a very strong word.

I despise what the Council have done to it. There’s hardly any Lutonians of my generation left. We had a school reunion recently and I asked: Who still lives in Luton? No one. There’s no one left. There’s no English.

In a lot of the schools now, white kids are minority children. I speak to so many of their parents in the town and they don’t know what to do – a white kid will have a run-in with some of the Pakistanis, they beat him up and the school won’t protect him, because, well, how do we deal with it? If it was white kids beating up a Pakistani based on race, all hell would – everyone would be helping to protect the Pakistani kid. But the white kids are sort of just left on their own.

I see what’s happened to Luton and I know it’s going to happen to the rest of the UK. That’s the thing I’ve been trying to awaken people to.

Who do you count as English? Is that a racial or cultural category?

I’d define it as people who describe themselves as ‘English’. I’ve got many black friends – St Lucians, Jamaicans, Nigerians – you ask them where they’re from, they’re English, yeah? You go to Luton town centre and ask any of the Pakistani boys where they’re from, they’ll say: ‘I’m Pakistani.’ Pakistan win the cricket, they’re all celebrating. Pakistan do anything, they’re celebrating. They’re not bothered when Britain do anything, or England – and they’re second- or third-generation.

My mother was an Irishwoman when she come to England [but] I’m English.

You don’t think of yourself as half Irish?3
I am half Irish. I’m not ashamed of that. I’ve gone through my family history and my mother’s [great-uncle] was shot dead in the 1916 Easter Uprising, 15 years old. Her grandad won a medal of honour from the French government. I’m proud of my Irish history; but I’m English.

Read more of this interview at:
https://highprofiles.info/interview/stephen-yaxley-lennon/

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