Tommy Robinson was detained at Heathrow airport on Saturday under counter-terrorism laws, and he says police took his phones during the stop. The detention lasted almost three hours, according to Robinson, who also said his iPhone and Samsung Galaxy were seized.
The stop was carried out under section 3 of the Counter-Terrorism Border Security Act 2019, a power that lets officers at ports stop, question, search and detain people suspected of travelling to plan, prepare or carry out hostile acts. The Metropolitan police declined to comment when asked about the detention.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, used the episode to ask supporters to donate money to fund his legal defence. A spokesperson for him called the detention an attack on free speech and investigative journalism, saying police likely wanted to see who he was talking to and identify his sources. That claim lands in the middle of a wider fight over his role online, where he has recently risen to prominence amid racial tensions across Britain.
The timing also matters because Robinson has become more visible after posting details of planned demonstrations across Britain and Northern Ireland on X, with Elon Musk sharing one of his posts to his 240 million followers. He has also been at the centre of other legal and police disputes before, including a July 2024 stop at the Channel tunnel in Folkestone while driving a friend's silver Bentley to Benidorm in Spain, when he refused to give officers the pin to his phone. In that case, a district judge said he could not be sure the police stop was lawful.
What remains unclear is what the Heathrow stop was connected to. Police have not said whether they will return the phones or take further action, and the silence leaves the detention hanging over Robinson at the same time as he is trying to turn it into a new fight over policing, borders and speech.
