The Oxford Union has secretly booked Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) to speak at a debate on Islam on 28 May. His involvement has been deliberately concealed, for fear of a backlash among students.
The motion – “This House believes the West is right to be suspicious of Islam” – was publicised in the Union’s Trinity 2026 term card, but without any speakers being named.
The official programme describes it as an “uncomfortable question” on a “deeply contested and polarising issue,” and asks whether Western suspicion of Islam reflects genuine cultural tension or is simply manufactured prejudice.
Last minute announcement
Robinson is being lined up to argue the former. Apaprently the Union’s plan was to announce his involvement only on the actual day of the event.
The debate will come less than a fortnight after Robinson’s planned “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London on 16 May, a follow-up to his September demonstration that drew more than 100,000 people and resulted in multiple arrests.
The Union is, in effect, offering him a prestigious academic stage at the height of his current racist campaign.
Robinson spoke at the Oxford Union in 2014, delivering a standalone address. An earlier invitation, in 2013, was withdrawn over security costs. This time he has accepted a place in formal debate, a format that confers rather more legitimacy than a solo turn at the despatch box.
Yet again, the Oxford Union’s officers are putting their own careerist thirst for publicity ahead of common sense and decency. We will hear all the usual tired tropes about “free speech” and “debate”.
But the Union’s officers know perfectly well that Tommy Robinson has no interest in debate. They also know that thanks to Elon Musk, Robinson’s poisonous hatred is broadcast worldwide.
Since the story broke tonight Robinson has confirmed the booking.
The Oxford Union is lending its prestige to Robinson’s vile incitement and grift, knowing perfectly well that nothing his opponents say in any “debate” will make any impact on the impressionable and often young audience nationwide who will not even hear the arguments in the Union’s chamber.
Probably the biggest impact that Robinson will hope for will be among prospective donors. His antics in the past year had been starting to look desperate, but this new gloss of respectability will help him keep the grift alive.
The Union’s officers have (as usual) their own grift, as they polish their CVs for highflying media, PR and City careers.
Don’t give a damn
Just as when their predecessors invited the likes of Holocaust denier David Irving and the BNP’s nazi leader Nick Griffin, and when an earlier generation of Union officers invited Sir Oswald Mosley, they don’t care a damn about the British Muslims who will be attacked by Robinson’s target audience.
And they don’t care about the radicalisation of some British Muslims who will increasingly feel that the British establishment (whether in Fleet Street or academia) actively encourages Islamophobia.
Not welcome
Those who benefit most from Tommy Robinson’s antics will be his mirror image among equally irresponsible Muslim extremist preachers and online troublemakers. It wouldn’t be surprising to see one or more of these characters prepared to appear in the charade of “debate” at Oxford with the thuggish EDL founder.
Decent people inside and outside Oxford should ensure that Tommy Robinson is not welcome at the Union, and that the politics of hatred and its cynical careerist enablers are given no quarter.
