English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson is at the centre of another visa row after he announced plans for a speaking tour of Australia.
Robinson was freed from a UK prison in August after judges quashed a contempt of court finding against him, but the British Attorney General is currently looking at whether to continue the case.
Now on bail, he is planning trips to speak in the U.S. and Australia, which some have estimated could see him rake in hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund his activism.
Tommy Robinson is hoping to speak at a series of meetings in Australia, but his planned trip has caused anger among some in the country, who want him barred from appearing
Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley Lennon, has been invited to speak at meetings in Washington on November 14 by the US group The Middle East Forum.
He is meanwhile billed to appear alongside Gavin McInnes, the Canadian founder of the alt-right group Proud Boys, at a series of speeches in Australia in December.
The pair say they will appear in Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Sydney between December 5 and December 16.
But the plans have sparked concerns in Australia over possible violence after some members of McInnes’s Proud Boys group were filmed brawling with counter demonstrators in New York last month.
Australia’s Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dr Dvir Abramovich has called on the country’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to deny Robinson a visa, saying his ‘race-baiting promotes religious bigotry’.
Australia’s Labor party immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann has meanwhile written to immigration minister David Coleman asking for Robinson’s co-speaker McInnes to be barred from the country.
A spokesman for British campaign group Hope Not Hate said: ‘Far right figures like Stephen Lennon and Gavin McInnes are building an international network. They’re seeking new platforms to fundraise, get media attention and recruit supporters. Where they go, violence isn’t far behind. Australia should keep this hate out.’
They say the speaking tours will open up new sources of funding to the 35-year-old.
Robinson posted a video on Facebook on Tuesday hitting out at claims in Australia that he is a white supremacist, and saying lies were being spread about him to prevent him from travelling.
He added: ‘Australia thinks they’ve seen scenes when they’ve had talks and guest speakers there. You ain’t seen nothing like the scenes you’re going to get if I’m allowed to come to your country and tell you the real score on what’s heading your way.’
More than 19,000 have signed a petition calling for Robinson and McInnes to be allowed into the country.
Meanwhile, it is unclear whether Robinson’s previous convictions will prevent him from travelling to the US later this month.
Robinson appeared on Facebook this week urging his followers to sign a petition calling for him to be allowed into Australia
Q&A: What did Tommy Robinson do wrong and why was he freed?
The far-Right activist twice tried to film Asian defendants in sensitive sex cases, while the trials were under way – in Canterbury in May last year, and in Leeds in May this year. Both judges said this was contempt of court as it could prevent a fair trial.
What is contempt of court?
Contempt, defined by a complicated series of laws, is activity that undermines a fair trial or defies the orders of a judge. It can bring a two-year jail term.
What was his punishment?
In Leeds, Judge Geoffrey Marson QC ruled that Robinson’s contempt was serious and committed him to prison for 15 months. He reduced that to ten months because Robinson admitted contempt, but added the three-month suspended term imposed by Judge Heather Norton in Canterbury.
Robinson, pictured outside London’s Old Bailey last month
Why did Judge Marson get it wrong?
The appeal judges said the judge in Leeds got one thing right – he persuaded Robinson to take his film down from Facebook. But after that things went wrong. Judge Marson acted too hastily, they said. Robinson was given no chance to admit or deny contempt. His punishment was handed down within five hours of the contempt of which he was accused. The judge showed ‘some muddle’.
What about Judge Norton?
Judge Norton made a mistake in referring to contempt as a criminal offence – as did Judge Marson.
Was his punishment too harsh?
Judge Marson’s erroneous ruling – saying that contempt was a criminal offence – had serious consequences for Robinson in prison. Wrongly classed as a convicted criminal, he lost a series of jail privileges including the right to doctors’ visits, to wear his own clothes and to have unrestricted visits.
What happens now?
The appeal judges said the finding of contempt in Leeds must be quashed, and the jail orders dropped. Robinson’s lawyers said contempt charges against him should be abandoned, but the appeal judges said Robinson might have been given a longer jail term than he received, and it was in the public interest for the charges to be properly heard.