Musk funding anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson defence

British anti-Islam activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson – at trial accused of refusing to give police his phone PIN code when stopped under anti-terrorism laws – said billionaire Elon Musk was funding his defence.

Yaxley-Lennon, better known by his pseudonym Tommy Robinson, has become the standard-bearer for some British nationalists and one of Britain’s most high-profile anti-immigration campaigners, recently holding a major rally in London attended by around 150,000 people.

In a video posted on social media ahead of his hearing at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court, he said Musk, who frequently reposted his messages on

Prosecutor Jo Morris said Yaxley-Lennon, 42, was detained by police under counter-terrorism powers as he passed through border security in a silver Bentley at the Channel Tunnel train terminal in south-east England in July 2024.

The officer involved in the incident said he became suspicious because of the high-value vehicle, Yaxley-Lennon’s demeanor refusing to maintain eye contact and the fact that he was on his own, and said he was going to Benidorm in southern Spain.

He and his colleagues seized Yaxley-Lennon’s phone and demanded he give his passcode number. However, he rejected this offer, saying that he was a journalist and that it contained privileged material.

Yaxley-Lennon says he was targeted by the state for exposing wrongdoing but was condemned by critics as a far-right mobster with a string of criminal convictions. He denies willfully failing to comply with a duty imposed by the Anti-Terrorism Act. The two-day hearing will end on Tuesday.