Tommy Robinson's army of pub reviewers

When there was no room at the inn for Stephen Yaxley-Lennon earlier this week, he appeared to threaten revenge. And so it has proved – with the pub he was turfed out of on Monday night suddenly getting a string of one-star reviews on Tripadvisor.

The self-styled Tommy Robinson was drinking with pals in The Rose in Bedford on Monday night when its landlord took umbrage with the right-wing rabble-rouser being on his promises. In a video posted on YouTube by somebody called ‘WorkingClassPatriot1’, the unnamed landlord is seen politely telling Robinson that “I don’t feel you need to be in my pub” and that “I’m not going to ruin your night, you can go wherever you like, but I don’t want you in my pub. It’s that simple.”

In turn, Robinson repeatedly asks for the landlord’s name before muttering darkly “I’ll find out… I’ll know by tomorrow”. Shortly before the video ends, a voice off camera can be heard threatening: “I’m going to shut down your pub. Watch.”

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Now, remarkably, a stream of critical one-star reviews of the pub have appeared on TripAdvisor, all very similar and from as far afield as Lincolnshire and Scarborough, all a sizeable journey for a quiet pint in Bedfordshire.

One in Glasgow complained that “the smell of smoke off the waiter was disgusting” while also moaning – strangely, for a fan of the loudspeaker-hailing Robinson – that “ambience was too loud”. Another, Victoria, claimed that “food was cold and beer was flat and served in dirty glasses”. Others were largely identical, with in almost all cases it being the users’ first and only review posted to Tripadvisor.

Still, it’s not dented the Rose’s rating more generally, which, with an average of 4.6 is the second-highest-rated venue in Bedfordshire. And we hear the landlord’s a thoroughly decent feller.