So why wasn’t Yaxley-Lennon arrested when he returned to UK?

NOTE: This article was published on 23 October 2024Lots of speculation on Monday about the non-arrest of Tommy Robinson aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon at Luton Airport when he arrived back in the UK on Sunday night. One press report suggested that the delayed arrest warrant issued against him in August had been triggered. If so, it’s…

NOTE: This article was published on 23 October 2024

Lots of speculation on Monday about the non-arrest of Tommy Robinson aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon at Luton Airport when he arrived back in the UK on Sunday night.

One press report suggested that the delayed arrest warrant issued against him in August had been triggered. If so, it’s inexplicable that he would not have been detained. But the arrest warrant was issued on the basis that it would be activated on 2 October if he hadn’t indicated to the court by then that he would attend his Contempt hearing on 28 October. The most likely explanation is that this is exactly what he’s done, and he’s returned to the UK safe in the knowledge that he wouldn’t be dragged straight off to prison.

Filmed relaxed and laughing (see picture) in the passport queue at Luton he actually says at one point “I ain’t getting nicked”. And his tweeted ‘surprise’ at not being held was accompanied, of course, by an immediate appeal for money for his nasal …sorry ‘legal fund’.

Interestingly, also travelling with him back from Benidorm were Stan Robinson and the convicted fraudster Dan Morgan, two UKIP stalwarts from Llanelli, south Wales, who had been visiting Yaxley-Lennon in Spain.

Robinson (right) is UKIP’s Spokesman for Wales and a member of the party NEC. In July he was their General Election candidate in Llanelli. A trade union hater, he was a member of the right-wing Freedom Association in the 1970s and took part in their trade union busting Operation Pony Express, which helped break the (mainly) Asian women workers’ strike at Grunwicks Film Processing Laboratories. (Ironically, both UKIP and Yaxley-Lennon now make a point of claiming to speak for the working class).

Dan Morgan (left) was last year convicted of involvement in what the trial judge called “a deliberate planned fraud carefully structured and fraudulent from its inception”. Hundreds of elderly people on low incomes were swindled out of their savings. Morgan was UKIP’s candidate for election to the Welsh Senedd in 2021 and would have been a general election candidate this year were it not for the fraud conviction.

Together, Robinson and Morgan run the so-called ‘Voice of Wales’, a vurulently right-wing video blog, now banned from You Tube.

A few days before his return, Yaxley-Lennon disclosed that he wanted to establish closer links up between his so-called ‘cultural movement’ and UKIP. He said had been in touch with “the lads” (Chairman Ben Walker and Leader Nick Tenconi) and will be talking to them when he got back to the UK.

If he manages to stay out of jail…


Paul Holborow

Paul Holborow

In the campaign against the National Front, Searchlight provided a rich and utterly reliable basis for much ANL propaganda – particularly with reference to the two leading NF figures, John Tyndall and Martin Webster. The appearance of Tyndall in full nazi uniform, drawn from the archives of Searchlight, was a key part of ANL propaganda, coupled with deeply damaging nazi quotes from Webster.

Paul Holborow
Founding member of the ANL and National Organiser 1977-81

Paul Nowak

Paul Nowak

The essence of trade unionism is solidarity, fairness and equality – for all workers – from all backgrounds. That’s why our fight against the far-right has always been part of our movement’s DNA. Searchlight is an incredibly important resource for trade unions and members to understand the contemporary tactics of far-right activity. Their work and intelligence gathering over the years have been incredibly insightful for the work we do, and how we fight the scourge of fascism.

Paul Nowak
TUC General Secretary

Alf Dubs

Lord Alf Dubs

Searchlight’s voice is more important than ever, and I am delighted that it will now be available to a wider audience than ever before in its new incarnation online. Searchlight has been extremely helpful over the years in exposing the far right, corruption, criminality and the murky links between organised crime and powerful interests in the UK and abroad. I wish Searchlight the very best.

Alf Dubs
Labour peer, former MP and Cabinet Minister, and Kindertransport child

Professor Colin Holmes

Professor Colin Holmes
Everyone who wants to understand contemporary racism and its historical background needs to read Searchlight.
Professor Colin Holmes
University of Sheffield

Peter Hain

Peter Hain, founder of the ANL and friend of Searchlight

British Jews have been persecuted over the centuries; British blacks since the Windrush generation of the 1950s; British Muslims, especially after the Islamist 9/11 and then 7/7 terrorist attacks in New York 2001 and London 2005. But until the last few years there has not been a simultaneous threat against all three British communities of Jewish, Black and Muslim Britons – meaning the need for Searchlight has never been greater.

Peter Hain
Labour peer, former MP and Cabinet Minster

Nick Davies

Nick Davies

To investigate fascists takes real courage and unusual commitment. The government, police, mainstream media occasionally take a look, but in the UK only Searchlight have kept at it, relentlessly and admirably, regardless of threat or obstacle. It’s journalism that matters. A rare thing.

Nick Davies
Multi-award-winning investigative journalist and writer

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