Tommy Robinson is richer and has more international support after two-month imprisonment, research shows
English Defence League founder sent almost £20,000 in bitcoin since being jailed in May, while global support surges online
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Tommy Robinson has left prison with more money and more backers after a swell of support from right-wing activists, according to new research.
The far-right figurehead could be jailed again at a new court hearing where he again faces contempt of court allegations.
But he is currently a free man after judges at the Court of Appeal quashed a 13-month sentence at Leeds Crown Court as the result of a "fundamentally flawed process". Robinson's release was greeted with jubilation by supporters.
International protests started almost immediately after Robinson was jailed, under his real name Stephen Yaxley Lennon, on 25 May and he has received almost £20,000 in Bitcoin since that date.
Followers from as far afield as Istanbul and Washington sent donations in the virtual currency, according to research by Press Association, including a payment of more than £5,500 that passed through his Bitcoin wallet on the day he was imprisoned.
Robinson's following on social media has also surged and he has been publicly supported by figures including the US president's son, Donald Trump Jr.
“I’d have done six months just for that recognition," he purportedly wrote in a letter from prison.
Several crowdfunding pages for supporters to donate in dollars and pounds have also been set up, claiming that they would be used to pay Robinson’s legal fees and support his wife and three children.
The 35-year-old’s official website allows visitors to make one-off or monthly donations in pounds, while his former employers at the Canadian Rebel Media website have been running a “Save Tommy” crowdfunding page.
Administrators said they had paid Robinson’s legal fees and any surplus would go to his family following Wednesday’s appeal ruling, but US think-tank the Middle East Forum also claimed it was paying his legal defence – on a webpage that has since been taken down.
Gregg Roman, director of the Middle East Forum, said: “The Middle East Forum's efforts to rally international support for Tommy Robinson's release were vindicated today.”
He told the Press Association the group had given Robinson “five-figure” financial support, as well as organising London rallies and political lobbying.
"We are not supporting his cause. We are supporting his right to articulate his opinions which are a part of that cause," Mr Roman said, adding that he condemned ”fascists, neo-Nazis, the Generation Identity movement" and other "nasty figures who are trying to take Mr Robinson's issues as their own".
A page on the Freestartr website called the "Tommy Robinson Legal Defense Fund" has raised more than £8,600 (£6,500) and a JustGiving page is also live.
Robinson’s social media following has also surged during his brief imprisonment, which came months after he was permanently banned from Twitter.
Fans of his official Facebook page have increased by almost 10 per cent, to just over 830,000 followers, and the rise is nearly 20 per cent to 230,000 on YouTube - where he encourages viewers to support his work with Bitcoin contributions.
Research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue think tank showed that 32 per cent of tweets using the #FreeTommy hashtag in July came from the US, compared with 40 per cent from the UK and others from around the world.
Meanwhile a change.org petition calling from his release received almost 10 per cent of its signatures from the US and another 10 per cent from Australia.
Nick Ryan, of campaign group Hope Not Hate, said Robinson’s message was being amplified by a “powerful international network of anti-Muslim figures”, from Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon to the leader of Ukip.
Writing for The Independent, he said American anti-Islam commentator Pamela Gellar had provided him financial support and the alt-right website Breitbart lobbied Donald Trump’s ambassador for international religious freedom lobbied the British government over Robinson’s case.
“He is backed by powerful overseas figures with deep pockets, yet portrays himself a man of the people: it’s time we woke up to the real Tommy,” Mr Ryan said.
Online retailers have also made an unknown amount of profit by selling a range of "Free Tommy" merchandise.
Since founding the English Defence League in 2009, Robinson has used a series of platforms to preach his opposition to Islam, immigration, human rights and ”political correctness“, threatening journalists and involving himself in fist fights in the process.
After failing to establish a UK chapter of German anti-Islam movement Pegida in 2016, Robinson was employed by Rebel Media and then quit to go it alone as an “independent reporter”.
After his activity was interrupted by jail sentences for false representation and mortgage fraud, he spent the last two years touring the world and building connections with far-right figures in the US and Europe.
Former Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon and his ex-London editor Raheem Kassam have also been using international interest in Robinson to drive their own attempt to create a group called "The Movement", which will seek to influence European politics.
Ukip has pledged to work with the group, after its leader Gerard Batten appeared at “Free Tommy” rallies where he compared Robinson to Nelson Mandela.
Right-wing media outlets including Fox News, Breitbart and Robinson's former employer, Rebel Media, also flocked to his cause over the last two months, alongside high-profile figures including Donald Trump Jr and actress Roseanne Barr, and internet personalities associated with the American alt-right.
Heidi Beirich, deputy director of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which monitors hate groups across the US, said the level of support for Robinson is "extraordinary".
She said: "I've never seen anything like this. It's not typical to have those kind of political officials advocating on behalf of people who take part in street fights and anti-Muslim rallies. It's a shock."
Julia Ebner, a research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said that while prominent alt-right figures and Rebel Media had upped Robinson’s profile in the US, the pan-European Generation Identity movement had spread his message across the continent in multiple languages.
"It's a whole spectrum approach that they're taking and co-operating across geographic areas with this new media ecosystem,” she added. “They have so-called journalists covering areas and Twitter personalities and YouTubers and think-tanks who produce research and provide funding and the activists organising protests.”
Generation Identity, which gained attention for funding a boat to intercept refugee rescues in the Mediterranean, denies allegations of white supremacism but Austrian leader Martin Sellner and his American blogger girlfriend Britanny Pettibone have both been barred from the UK.
“When the purpose of someone’s visit to this country is to spread hatred, the Home Office can and will stop them entering Britain," a Home Office spokesperson said in April. “This government upholds free speech but we will not let it be used to excuse detestable views that directly contravene our values. We take the threat from extremism seriously and we will challenge it wherever we see it.”
Ms Ebner said that while Robinson has benefited from foreign support, his imprisonment has also become a “rallying point” for rival movements wanting to further their own causes.
“He’s been completely idealised as a symbol of freedom of speech by people in the US and his supporters in the UK and across Europe,” she told The Independent. "They all have an interest in uniting the right to build common ground…even the very extreme fringes know they can use Robinson as the ‘moderate’ mouthpiece for their own ideas.
“It’s very opportunistic - he’s providing them with the perfect figurehead and the perfect narrative.”