Tommy Robinson ‘arrested under anti-terror laws’ after complaint about film

Tommy Robinson was arrested under anti-terrorism laws after a film was allegedly shown in contempt of court at a protest, according to his supporters.

His detention was made public in a post on his verified X account and followed a march led by Mr Robinson and a counter-protester in central London on Saturday that attracted thousands of people.

A complaint was later filed about a film that was allegedly shown to the crowd in violation of a Supreme Court order. Police said officials had launched further investigations.

Mr Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon, also released an hour-and-a-half-long film about X on Saturday afternoon, saying he had previously avoided releasing the video because he was “scared”.

A post on his X account on Sunday said: “We can confirm that Tommy Robinson has been arrested by police using powers under the Terrorism Act 2000.”

“That’s right, you read that correctly. Tommy is being held by the police under anti-terrorism laws.

“We will keep you updated as soon as possible.”

The Metropolitan Police said in response to the post about Mr Robinson’s arrest that there was “no involvement of the Metropolitan Police”.

Responding to a complaint about the film being shown on X on Saturday night, the Met said: “We did not know which films would be shown during the event. Protest organizers are not required to disclose these details in advance. We have no authority to compel them to do so.”

“The officers on duty at the event could not reasonably have known that a civil case was pending in connection with a particular film. Now that we have been informed of this, we are conducting further investigations to determine what action we need to take.”