Tommy Robinson jailed for 18 months

The prisons are bursting but it seems there is room for at least one more convict. Tommy Robinson has today been jailed for 18 months after admitting contempt of court by repeating false claims against a Syrian refugee. Robinson admitted ten breaches of a High Court order made in 2021 during a hearing in Woolwich Crown Court, with lawyers for the Solicitor General accusing him of ‘undermining’ the rule of law. Barristers for Robinson said it was his ‘principles that have brought him before the court’ – which is, er, one way of looking at it.

Today’s hearing was the culmination of a five-year series of events which began in October 2018. A video went viral that month showing how Jamal Hijazi, a Syrian in West Yorkshire, had been attacked by another teenager at school. Robinson – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – then posted his own response to his Facebook followers alleging that his investigation had established that Hijazi was a violent thug, a claim that was untrue.