{"id":447327,"date":"2026-02-26T21:13:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/447327\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T21:13:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:13:19","slug":"british-far-right-activist-tommy-robinson-welcomed-at-state-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/447327\/","title":{"rendered":"British far-right activist Tommy Robinson welcomed at State Department"},"content":{"rendered":"

The glowing reception contrasts with the tone often adopted by President Donald Trump and his officials toward mainstream politicians across Europe, a frequent target of public criticism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dame Sara Khan, the British government\u2019s former counter-extremism commissioner, said she was \u201cdisappointed\u201d to see Robinson hosted at the State Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an individual who has fueled significant violent disorder on our streets,\u201d Khan, who was also appointed under Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson<\/a> as an independent government adviser on social cohesion and resilience, told NBC News in an email.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a history of criminal convictions as long as my arm\u201d and is \u201cwidely despised by overwhelming sections of the British population,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Polling by YouGov last year<\/a> found that 61% of British adults held an unfavorable view of Robinson, while 12% held a favorable view of him.<\/p>\n

Robinson and the British Foreign Office did not respond to NBC News\u2019 requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Once the owner of a tanning salon in his hometown of Luton, a town outside London, Robinson was first jailed in 2005 for assaulting an off-duty police officer. Other convictions have included mortgage fraud, contempt of court, and attempting to circumvent a travel ban into the United States by entering the country using someone else\u2019s passport.<\/p>\n

The activist first came to prominence as co-founder of the English Defense League, a protest organization that vowed opposition to Islam and intermingled with the country\u2019s soccer hooligan scene. <\/p>\n

In recent years, he has amassed millions of followers across X and YouTube, billing himself as an independent journalist focused on the issue of \u201cgrooming gangs\u201d \u2014 children being sexually abused by groups of men.<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s high-water mark came last September when his \u201cUnite the Kingdom\u201d march attracted more than 110,000 people to the streets of central London, according to police estimates. Elon Musk, who reversed Robinson\u2019s ban from the X platform in 2023, joined the rally via video link, telling the crowd that \u201cviolence is coming\u201d and \u201cyou either fight back or you die.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KateTommy Robinson, right, attends the “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London in September 2025.Ben Montgomery \/ Getty Images\"ProtestersProtesters at the “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London in September 2025.Christopher Furlong \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

For years, Robinson and others accused the government and officials of covering up grooming gang cases carried out by people of South Asian heritage.<\/p>\n

His claims have been frequently amplified by Musk, who has used his X megaphone to broadcast the issue worldwide.<\/p>\n

An independent, government-commissioned report last year, conducted by Britain’s former victims’ commissioner, found \u201cclear evidence of over-representation among suspects of Asian and Pakistani-heritage men\u201d and that organizations had been \u201cavoiding the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist.\u201d <\/p>\n

The government has since established a national inquiry, with Shabana Mahmood, the interior minister \u2014 whose parents are of Pakistani origin \u2014 criticizing an \u201cabject failure by the state\u201d on the issue.<\/p>\n

Robinson’s critics challenge the idea put out by Rittenhouse and others that he is a \u201cfree speech\u201d champion, noting his 2019 contempt of court conviction for public interventions in a criminal grooming gangs case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Robinson does do is hide behind the banner of free speech and weaponize it to justify spreading racist and antidemocratic beliefs,\u201d Khan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The glowing reception contrasts with the tone often adopted by President Donald Trump and his officials toward mainstream…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-447327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}