The far-right activist is still wanted for questioning by police over an alleged assault at St Pancras station
Tommy Robinson, who is still wanted for questioning by police over an alleged assault at St Pancras station, is believed to have flown to Tenerife.
Footage posted on social media appeared to show the far-right activist pacing around as a man lay nearby motionless at the station on Monday evening.
Later, the force confirmed that the suspect, who they have not named but said is a 42-year-old man from Bedfordshire, had boarded a flight out of the country.
Robinson, 42, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has not commented directly on what happened but has reposted statements by supporters to his X account, including one which said: “If you cross a line and attack someone physically, or threaten to attack them physically… A pre-emptive strike is totally legal.”
The man was discharged from hospital on Wednesday, British Transport Police said.
Meanwhile, The i Paper has verified reports that Robinson headed to Tenerife on a flight out of the UK. Spanish police are aware and monitoring the situation.
But how does Robinson, founder and leader of the now largely defunct English Defence League, make the money to support himself and make trips abroad?
How Robinson makes his money
The activist said in a High Court hearing in 2022 that he was spending up to £100,000 on gambling at one point before declaring bankruptcy.
Backers of Robinson have always been keen to throw their financial support behind him. He said in 2020 that he would often receive about £1,000 each month in donations from supporters, with this figure sometimes being as high as £4,000.
Robinson has previously used donation tools on Facebook, broadcasting his pleas to an audience of over 1 million followers in 2018. The campaigner claims he has raised several hundred thousand pounds as a result of online donations.
The possibility of further donations was narrowed when Robinson was banned from Instagram and Facebook in February 2019 for breaching policies on hate speech.
YouTube also made the decision to remove advertisements from Robinson’s account the month before, blocking the opportunity for him to generate revenue from his videos.
The Sunday Times reported Robinson’s former assistant, Lucy Brown, as claiming most of his fortune has come from a mass of small donations.
It added in 2019 that Robinson had said he made an “unbelievable amount of money” in 2018, implying he had received over £600,000 in donations across three years.
He claimed he still had “a few hundred thousand pounds” even after spending £300,000 on issues such as legal battles.
Online donations were also sought to fund legal aid for Robinson, with a campaign from Canadian far-right outlet Rebel News asking for £125,000 in a crowdfunder.
A law expert told The i Paper in April that this cost was consistent with the figure expected to be needed to fund such legal battles.
Rebel News has also started a new donation page to provide legal aid for Robinson regarding his alleged involvement in the assault at St Pancras train station this week.
The i Paper revealed in January that tech billionaire Elon Musk had agreed to fund two legal bills, namely one relating to the treatment of Robinson in prison and the charges he faced under the Terrorism Act for refusing to grant police access to his phone. The total amount of such donations from Musk was unclear.
Further to online donations, Robinson was stated to have made up to £8,000 a month while working at Rebel News.
Robinson’s book, Manifesto, topped Amazon’s bestsellers list on 8 October last year after being published, with the activist having previously claimed that book sales have allowed him to take his family on holidays.
His 2015 book, Enemy of the State, claimed he and his then-wife owned seven properties in 2014, with six of them being in her name, before selling them to fund his £950,000 home in Bedfordshire.
How Robinson left UK for Tenerife
The i Paper has taken steps to verify videos appearing to show Robinson leaving the UK on a flight to Tenerife.
The original videos were posted to TikTok more than 24 hours ago and show a person who bears a striking resemblance to Robinson having his passport checked moments before boarding a plane. The person appears to be travelling alone, with the person who filmed the video noting in the comments the passenger was on a “solo trip”.
It was posted with the caption: “spotted tommy robinson getting on my flight this morning”.
A frame designed to check the size of hand luggage can be seen in the clip with a Ryanair logo. A tannoy announcement in English with an English accent can be heard, suggesting it was filmed in a UK airport.
A second video posted by the same TikTok user shows the man boarding a bus after disembarking a plane with Ryanair livery. The plane’s registration is partially visible in the frame.
Checking the details on plane tracking website Flightradar, it is possible to see that a plane with that registration took off from Stansted at 6.45am on 29 July and landed in Tenerife at 10.15am. Ryanair does operate from Stansted and flies to Tenerife.
In the video showing the man boarding the bus, a large vertical tattoo can be seen running up the left side of his left calf. Multiple photos of Robinson show he has a similar tattoo in the same place.
The man in the video is also the same height and stature as Robinson, with his same distinctive gait.
There are no verified photos of Robinson from the same day which would confirm whether he was wearing the clothing as the man in the video, but he is wearing a crossbody bag, a style favoured by Robinson.
The person who posted the video is a TikTok user who appears to live in Britain and posts regularly about his own life, and has not previously posted either newsworthy content or anything that appears to have been faked, which decreases the risk the two videos are fake or edited. There are no clear tell-tale signs of AI or editing in the video clips.
Robinson’s reported links to Spain
Spanish police said they are aware of Robinson’s arrival in Tenerife. They will launch an investigation if a formal extradition request is made, police said.
Spanish media quickly picked up on reports of Robinson’s presence, describing him as a “well-known extremist activist” by the left-leaning online newspaper eldiario.es.
Reports in Spain suggested that Robinson had previously filmed propaganda podcasts with far-right supporters at a villa owned by a wealthy British businessman in Spain’s Costa Blanca.
In 2023, The Olive Press, an English language expat newspaper, reported that Robinson used a villa owned by fashion tycoon Philip Day.
There is no suggestion that Day knew the villa was being used to film podcasts made by Robinson or supported him in any way.
Far-right leaders, including representatives of the American far-right group The Proud Boys, took part in the podcasts, according to the report.
The €1.6m (£1.4m) villa is owned by Ewm Investco Limited and linked to Day through his ownership of The Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group.
A Spanish police spokeswoman told The i Paper: “At the moment we have not received any request for help from the British police in relation to Mr Robinson.”
