There is today perhaps no greater thorn in the side of the British liberal establishment than counter-jihad activist Tommy Robinson.
The 43-year-old son of an Irishwoman and an Englishman has proven time and again that he is able not only to draw crowds numbered in the tens of thousands but to focus British working-class fury over the fallout of mass immigration, the failure of multiculturalism, the threats posed by radical Islam, and the efforts by the powers that be to cover up and/or contain various related scandals.
‘This is an attack on free speech.’
In the wake of his criticism over the horrific death of 18-year-old Englishman Henry Nowak at the hand of a Sikh in England and the near-beheading of Scotsman Stephen Ogilvie by a Sudanese suspect in Belfast, Robinson found himself once again in police custody under the British equivalent of the Patriot Act.
Robinson noted in a Saturday post on X, “I’M A TERRORIST AGAIN. I have been detained at Heathrow Airport today for the best part of 3 hours. I was detained under section 3 of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019.”
Under schedule 3 of the counter-terrorism law, an examining officer “may question a person for the purpose of determining whether the person appears to be a person who is, or has been, engaged in hostile activity” if that person is at a port or in a border area and appears to be entering or leaving the country, or if that person is on a ship or aircraft that has touched down in the United Kingdom.
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“Hostile activity” is defined as acts threatening national security, acts threatening the economic well-being of the U.K., or serious crimes carried out for or on behalf of a foreign power.
Per the legislation, it is “immaterial” whether the detainee is “aware that activity in which they are or have been engaged is hostile activity.”
Robinson claimed that his phone had been seized by police — just as it had when he was detained by Kent police under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act while attempting to travel in July 2024 to Spain, where he now lives.
The Westminster Magistrates’ Court determined in November that Robinson’s previous detention under the Terrorism Act was unlawful and cleared the activist of the corresponding charge.
According to paperwork dated Saturday that Robinson was provided with and later shared online, an examining officer at the airport seized the Englishman’s iPhone and Samsung Galaxy A16 on suspicion that the devices “could be used in connection with the carrying out of a hostile act.”
“Absolute f**king madness,” Robinson wrote.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told the BBC that a man in his 40s was stopped under the counter-terrorism law at Heathrow Airport after returning to the U.K. from Russia via Turkey.
Robinson — who met with Elon Musk’s father, Errol, while in Moscow — told the Guardian last week that he had traveled to Russia “to see how this country got itself so well on to the straight and narrow and see the beauty of a civilized society.”
The Metropolitan Police spokesperson stated that the man stopped on Saturday “was interviewed by officers and his communication devices were seized. He was subsequently released.”
A spokesperson for Robinson speculated that police confiscated the activist’s communication devices because “they likely want to see who he is talking to, and maybe find out who his sources are, sources who will expose politicians for their part in the rape of a generation of British girls.”
“This is an attack on free speech, this is an attack on investigative journalism, nothing more nothing less,” the spokesperson added.
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