Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage, and a Riot Over a Crime That Never Happened

With characteristic restraint, Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has said Saturday’s Unite the Kingdom rally in London is going to be “the biggest event in British history ever”.

But while he’s hyping the scale of his rally, Robinson is keen to say that he wants to keep things civil. The far-right figure, who has organised many events which turned to disorder in his time, has told people to come to London without face coverings and to keep their anger in check. Last year’s Unite the Kingdom rally resulted in 23 arrests as some protesters hurled bottles and planks of wood at police officers. However, unlike the EDL rallies of yore, with 100,000 attendees, it was more notable for its massive scale than for kicking off.

But while Robinson is keen to disassociate himself from any potential trouble, his longtime associate Danny Tommo has been stirring the pot recently, leading a march that turned nasty, demanding justice for a crime that never happened.

The quiet Surrey town of Epsom became a magnet for the far-right in April as protesters took to the streets demanding answers from the police. An alleged gang rape had taken place, and police had appealed for witnesses.

Police only had “vague and limited” descriptions of the suspects, and so they couldn’t share them with the public. In the informational vacuum, misinformation started to circulate online, including speculation that the suspects were asylum seekers.

“We are working at pace to develop our picture of the suspects, and we will share details as soon as we are able to,” Det Insp Aine Matthews said. Not good enough, said Tommo, who led a march to the police station.

A video on his Youtube channel shows him demanding answers from the local police before a demo took place. He harangues an environmental protection officer who happens to be there about the slow progress of the investigation, saying “you don’t give a shit, mate”, confuses Epsom with Epping – the site of anti-asylum protests last year – and asks police officers, “Do you want it to go off in this town?”

He speculates to officers: “If this was four white lads that had done this to a girl, I almost guarantee you it would be on the news in a couple of days and you lot know that. There’s a reason why after four days there’s still no information.”

There was a reason, as it turned out, and it was nothing to do with two-tier policing or political correctness gone mad.

Nothing had happened.

Surrey police concluded a “thorough investigation” and found that the woman had “sustained an accidental head injury” following a night out and made “a confused report”. Before police had managed to finish their investigation, a riot broke out in usually tranquil Epsom, with four arrests, missiles thrown at police and the targeting of hotels and homes. All over nothing.

As for Saturday, the Met is preparing a massive, “unprecedented” operation to police the Unite the Kingdom demo, as well as the Nakba day march. The police operation will cost £4.5 million, which includes £1.7 million to draft 660 officers from forces across England and Wales.

Facial recognition will be used in Camden, where the Unite the Kingdom Rally attendees are expected to congregate, with the Met saying it has “intelligence which indicates there is likely to be a threat to public safety from some who might be in attendance”. Armoured vehicles known as SandCats will be deployed for the first time. The lack of football games taking place – other than Chelsea versus Manchester City in the FA cup final – has increased the risk of disorder, as hooligan firms are likely to attend the rally instead.

The Met has said facial recognition technology will not be used at the Nakba day rally, prompting rightwing politicians, including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and shadow home secretary Chris Philp, to get their two-tier policing narratives in place. “The fact that two-tier justice is being applied against patriotic Brits is disgraceful,” Farage posted on X.

This is perhaps telling. Robinson has generally been seen as persona non grata among the ostensibly respectable right. Now, rightwing politicians want to find a way to give some tacit endorsement to the event without actually backing Robinson.

Farage’s complaints about two-teir policing are ironic, of course. He was accused of “inciting a riot” in Southport, following the mass stabbing of girls at a dance class in which three children were killed in July 2024. “I just wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us”, Farage said in a video, before riots and pogroms kicked off nationwide.

Neither of them is likely to appreciate the observation, but Farage and Tommo are like shit-stirring peas in a misinformational pod.