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Controversial influencer Andrew Tate has been released from house arrest by a Romanian court and has threatened to launch his very own political party to take over the UK.
The online ‘personality’ is facing a string of allegations relating to the trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering, but has been freed by a court to leave his home after being under house arrest for five months, according to his spokesman.
The release from house arrest has been granted “pending the outcome of a criminal investigation”, his spokesman has said.
But he is still facing charges, alongside brother Tristan, and is now “under judicial control”, meaning he can travel through Romania “while adhering to the required legal conditions”.
Tate, 38, and his brother Tristan both deny all the charges against them.
The spokesman added: “Andrew Tate and his team remain committed to full co-operation and the pursuit of justice.”
Tate was first put under house arrest in August 2024.
After these legal proceedings are complete, the brothers are set to be extradited to the UK, where they face additional allegations of rape and human trafficking that they also deny.
Tate currently lives in Romania, having previously been based in the UK, and has threatened to try to get involved in UK politics once he is back.
He posted a poll on his social media networks, including X, where he asked his followers in an “ultra serious post” if he should “enter politics and run for Prime Minister”.
He said he wanted to “save Britan [sic]”, but got the spelling of the country wrong.
The influencer then said he could call his political party the BRUV Party.
Here is all we know about Tate:
Who is Andrew Tate?
Tate, 38, was born Emory Andrew Tate III on December 14, 1986. He is an American-British former professional kickboxer born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Luton, England.
He is the son of the late chess player Emory Tate, while his mother worked as a catering assistant.
Tate worked as a TV producer while training as a kickboxer, before transitioning to a professional fighting career.
His appearance on Big Brother in 2016 marked the start of his public notoriety. Since then, he has gained infamy for making offensive and misogynistic comments on social media, leading to widespread criticism and a controversial presence on TikTok.
Videos of Tate have garnered millions of views, prompting women’s charities to call for his removal from the platform.
His arrest came soon after he provoked environmental activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter, boasting about his cars and the emissions they produce. In response, she tweeted: “Please do enlighten me. email me at [email protected].”
Tate hit back with a video where he asked someone off-camera to bring him pizza, sparking theories that the Romanian pizza boxes allegedly informed authorities of Tate’s whereabouts.
But how did he get to this point?
Why was Andrew Tate banned from Meta’s Instagram and Facebook?
Meta banned Andrew Tate from Instagram and Facebook in August 2022.
Meta said that it removed Tate from its platforms for “violating its policies on dangerous organisations and individuals”, but did not provide further details, the BBC reported.
Responding to news of Mr Tate’s ban from Facebook and Instagram, Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope Not Hate, said: “Tate poses a genuine threat to young men, radicalising them towards extremism misogyny, racism and homophobia.
“We’ve provided significant evidence to the major social media platforms, including Meta, about his activity and why he must be removed.
“We welcome Meta’s swift action to remove Andrew Tate and we’ll be putting pressure on TikTok to follow this example. They must act now to prevent further spread of these extremist views.”
A TikTok spokesman said: “Misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated on TikTok. We’ve been removing violative videos and accounts for weeks, and we welcome the news that other platforms are also taking action against this individual.”
Ruth Davison, chief executive of women’s safety charity Refuge, said Meta had made the “right decision” in banning Tate.
“This is the kind of decisive action needed to tackle the online radicalisation of young men towards a violently misogynistic worldview,” she said.
“The same kind of action is now needed outside of high-profile cases like this — we know that women are experiencing stalking, harassment and abuse online every day, often without so much as a response from social media companies.”
Big Brother appearance and removal
Tate later said that the actions in the video were consensual and that he was still friends with the woman.
But Big Brother viewers had already called for him to be removed from the house after his offensive tweets resurfaced.
He allegedly wrote abusive tweets about Girls Aloud singer Cheryl and was accused of being homophobic and racist.
Andrew Tate was removed from Big Brother after a week.
© Channel 5
Comments on depression and backlash
In September 2017, Tate attracted a backlash on Twitter after his comments on depression.
In a tweet, he said: “Depression isn’t real. You feel sad, you move on. You will always be depressed if your life is depressing. Change it.”
Even Harry Potter author JK Rowling responded, by sharing his tweets and saying: “This thread will teach you a lot about the defence mechanism of projection, but zero about the real mental illness that is depression.”
Andrew Tate’s controversial comments on sexual assault
A month later in October 2017, amid the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault allegations, Tate came under fire for saying that women should “bear responsibility” for being raped.
On Twitter, he said: “If you put yourself in a position to be raped, you must [bear] some responsibility. I’m not saying it’s OK you got raped.
“No woman should be abused regardless. However, with sexual assault, they want to put zero blame on the victim whatsoever.”
He added: “A man looking at you or whistling at you or asking your name isn’t harassment.
“This belief does discredit as a whole. Stick to the serious definitions and stop pretending normal male behaviour is rape.”
Tate also said: “Women have been exchanging sex for opportunity for a very long time. Some did this. Weren’t abused.”
This backlash brought him more fame, prompting an appearance on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s podcast InfoWars. He mingled with right-wing figures including Donald Trump Jr, Nigel Farage, and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson.
TikTok fame and Hustler’s University
More recently, Tate has gone viral on TikTok for his controversial comments. However, his growth on the social media platform is not totally organic.
Tate founded an online learning platform called Hustler’s University. This sees him charge his followers £36 a month to access courses about how to make money.
The website also sells specific programs for thousands of pounds–that supposedly teach subscribers how to get rich.
His subscribers can also earn money by selling a membership to someone else, similar to a multi-level marketing scheme.
The Guardian reported that thousands of Tate’s Hustler’s University members flooded TikTok with videos of him in a “blatant attempt to manipulate the algorithm” and “artificially boost his content”.
Now, TikTok feeds are flooded with videos of Tate making offensive statements, mostly about women.
What has Andrew Tate said about women?
As well as his offensive comments about sexual assault, Tate has also said that women “belong in the home” and are a “man’s property”.
He has said that if a man sleeps with a woman while he has a girlfriend he loves, it doesn’t count as cheating. However, if his girlfriend spoke to another man, he would consider it cheating.
Tate said a man shouldn’t let a woman go to a restaurant or nightclub with her friends if he isn’t there too, and that she should stay at home instead.
He has also said that “probably 40 per cent of the reason” he moved to Romania was because it was easier to evade rape charges.
He added: “I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free.”
What is Andrew Tate’s net worth?
According to celebritynetworth.com, Tate has a net worth of $12m (£9.4m).
Could he become prime minister?
On January 6, he shared a string of tweets, telling his followers what he would concentrate on if voted into power – from defunding the BBC, cracking down on knife crime and “revolutionising education”.
His self-titled Britain Restoring Underlying Values (BRUV) Party is not linked to any other existing political party, and Tate says he wants to lead it at the next general election, scheduled for 2029.
At present, the British voting system sees constituents vote in their local MPs, and the leader of the political party with the most seats then becomes prime minister.
There are 650 constituents in Britain and a majority of 326 is needed to form a Government, so in order for Tate to become prime minister, he would need to form the party, find supporters, and then win at least 326 seats across Britain.
Becoming prime minister could be a tall order but he could stand to become an MP.
To stand as a candidate in a general election you need to be at least 18 years old and a British citizen, which means he could try to represent a constituency in the UK.
There are certain rules about who can stand and those who are prohibited.
Interestingly, a criminal record does not preclude someone from standing as an MP.
