Double standards and Tenerife Tommy

Tommy Robinson – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – has become infamous for stirring up hatred against immigrants, often using the claim that many of them are criminals to do so. He has specifically railed against “an invasion of… criminals” and said that “Europe’s leaders are facilitating it”.

Now Robinson is reported to have left the country less than 24 hours after police indicated they wanted to question him in relation to a serious assault at St Pancras station that left a man hospitalised. (Robinson’s supporters say his departure has nothing to with this, and that he had already arranged to fly out in advance for media interviews).

Further details of the alleged incident are scarce, but video posted to social media from the scene appeared to show him standing near a man who seems to be unconscious. Robinson can be heard protesting “he came at me bruv, you saw that, he came at me”.

Robinson’s flight took him to Tenerife, an island that is part of Spain’s territory. It makes him, for the time being at least, an immigrant to that country – but perhaps not the sort he or his supporters would typically welcome, not least because he has an extensive criminal record.

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Some of these crimes are violent: Robinson has been convicted and jailed for an assault on an off-duty police officer, for offensive and threatening behaviour in a football brawl, and for common assault at an EDL rally. Separately, he has multiple convictions relating to dishonesty, namely travelling on a false passport and attempting mortgage fraud.

Though not a criminal conviction, Robinson also twice served prison sentences for contempt of court – the first his self-promoting online stunts nearly undermined the criminal prosecution of a rape gang. Most recently, he was released after serving seven months in relation to breaching reporting restrictions on a libel case relating to false claims he made about a Syrian refugee that caused mass harassment of a teenager.

Surely, Robinson’s supporters will be railing against the government of Spain for their willingness to let a “foreign criminal” into their country so easily, even without any consideration of why he might have travelled there so abruptly. The outcry will doubtless begin any moment now…