The multi-aliased grifter, most commonly known as Tommy Robinson, was back in the UK in July to cause as much disruption as he could. But for a while it looked as though he might be a no-show for his own 27 July shenanigans, because less than five weeks before that he had been sitting in custody in Calgary, Canada.

In an ironic narrative twist the racist, anti-immigrant rabble rouser had been arrested by border enforcement for immigration offences and had to surrender his passport to the authorities.

Soon arrested

He arrived in Canada on 17 June and was scheduled to do a speaking tour with his previous employer Rebel News, a Canadian far-right political and social media organisation. This did not go to plan, however, when he was arrested after his first speaking event in Calgary. He was told he could not leave the city and must check into the immigration office every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until further notice.

He was later allowed to leave Calgary, and on 30 June he held a speaking event with Ezra Levant from Rebel News in Toronto.

The fact that Robinson (aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) was granted entry into Canada in the first place was surprising in view of his numerous past criminal convictions, including for assault, drug offences and entering the USA illegally using someone else’s passport. In total, he has spent about five years in prison for seven of his convictions.

Outstanding warrant

According to the arresting police officers in Canada, Robinson was arrested under “an outstanding immigration warrant”. (This is not thought to refer to some previous entry into Canada, but simply to mean that a warrant had already been issued for his arrest, and he was not nicked for an on‑the-spot incident).

Shortly after his arrest, Bethan Nodwell, a leading Canadian far-right figure and hate-acquaintance of Robinson’s, made a number of explosive allegations regarding his exploits since his arrival in the country and exposing the details of his latest scam.

In a video interview posted online, Nodwell alleged that a dinner outing with Robinson a week before his arrest descended into an alcohol- and drug-fuelled binge in which Robinson went missing and was later located in a “massage parlour”.

Nodwell said that, before he went missing, an intoxicated Robinson declared that the speaking tour was over (because it had only sold a pathetic 60 or so tickets) and he was going to go to Calgary to “get nicked”.

And so the grift began.

Robinson flew to Calgary the following week and, surprise surprise, got arrested. Almost immediately the well‑oiled “Save Tommy” machine kicked into gear, raising money from donations and sales of merchandise.

Shenanigans

When Nodwell found out that he had been arrested she realised exactly what Robinson had meant when he’d said “all of this is shenanigans”. What Robinson hadn’t been able to make in ticket sales he seemingly intended to make up in contributions to his support fund.

His actions exposed the hypocrisy that many have accused him of for years – that the self-styled protector of women and girls from grooming gangs is nothing but a fraud. As Nodwell pointed out in her interview the day after Robinson was arrested: “If you are doing drugs with prostitutes, you aren’t defending women.”

Nodwell was particularly unimpressed by his latest scheme when she realised that it would involve “getting all these grannies” (people like her own mother) to dig into their purses and donate to Robinson. She warned others not to contribute to his fundraiser: “Close up your wallet, you are being had.”

Irish identity

After his arrest, Robinson posted his immigration arrest documents on Twitter/X. These stated that he was travelling under an Irish identity.

Ironically, Robinson is himself an immigrant and, until recently, was resident in Spain. This was presumably under his Irish persona, as he does not have the right to live in the European Union as a UK citizen thanks to Brexit – something that he campaigned for.

However, as we now know, he is in Spain no longer. After skipping the UK before a court appearance, leading a judge to issue an arrest warrant, he turned up in Cyprus. His stay there was but a short one – as soon as the Cyprus police said they would co-operate with any extradition request from the UK, he fled the country.

Call for enquiry

His latest choice for country of residence appears to be Greece, where he presumably travelled once again on his Irish passport.

Now, of course, Irish parliamentarians are calling for an enquiry into how he obtained that Irish passport: the arrest document completed by the Canadians recorded that he had been born in Ireland. And as we all know, he was actually born and bred in Luton. We await the results of their enquiries with anticipation.