British anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson said he was detained by police at Heathrow Airport on Saturday, 13 June and had his mobile phone seized, days after posting extensively online about racist and anti-immigrant unrest in Northern Ireland.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, said he was held for around three hours after arriving in Britain from Russia via Türkiye.
In a post on X, he said he had been stopped under the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act.
"My phone has been seized by the police," Robinson wrote. "Please help kick off my legal fund for defence."
Without naming Robinson, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed that officers had stopped a man in his 40s at Heathrow Airport on Saturday.
"The man was interviewed by officers and his communication devices were seized. He was subsequently released," the spokesperson said.
Police did not provide further details about the reason for the stop.
The detention came after a week of disorder in Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland.
The unrest followed the circulation of a video showing a violent attack in which a man lost an eye. A Sudanese man has since been charged with attempted murder. Police have said they are not treating the incident as terrorism.
In the days that followed, groups of rioters targeted homes and businesses linked to ethnic minority communities and foreign residents.
The British government condemned the violence, with Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn describing the scenes as "racist thuggery".
Several local politicians accused far-right figures and online agitators of helping to spread or encourage the disorder through social media posts.
Robinson is one of Britain's most prominent far-right activists and has built a large online following through campaigns focused on immigration and Islam.
He has repeatedly attracted controversy over his public statements and activism and has faced a number of legal challenges over the years.
His detention at Heathrow is likely to attract further attention given his high profile and his recent comments about the violence in Northern Ireland.
It remains unclear whether any further action will be taken following the seizure of his phone and other communication devices.
As the Ukraine war is highlighted by some leaders during the United Nations' 81st General Assembly meetin...
The 81st UN General Assembly returns for its third day in New York on Thursday, with world leaders delivering high-level speeches and holding diplo...
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained low on Thursday, as Iran reiterated that it will neither enter into new negotiations with th...
As the Ukraine war is highlighted by some leaders during the United Nations' 81st General Assembly meeting in New York, Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Thursday with ballistic missiles, killing two people and injuring six, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained low on Thursday, as Iran reiterated that it will neither enter into new negotiations with the United States nor re-open the Strait as long as its conditions are not met, despite recent indirect talks in New York mediated by Qatar.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York on Wednesday, as Washington pushes for an end to the war in Ukraine and Kyiv and Moscow continue to strike energy infrastructure.
U.S. President Donald Trump is addressing the UN General Assembly as world leaders gather in New York for the 81st session. Conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, global security and diplomacy set to dominate the event.
U.S. President Donald Trump said his team held a three-hour meeting with an Iranian delegation in New York that he described as “very good” and “productive”, with another round of talks scheduled soon.
As the Ukraine war is highlighted by some leaders during the United Nations' 81st General Assembly meeting in New York, Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Thursday with ballistic missiles, killing two people and injuring six, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
The 81st UN General Assembly returns for its third day in New York on Thursday, with world leaders delivering high-level speeches and holding diplomatic meetings. Restoring trust, managing global transformation, peace and security, and international cooperation remain at the centre of discussions.
Australia says an OpenAI AI agent gained unauthorised access to a government Medicare statistics portal in June, in what officials say could be an unprecedented case of an AI system breaching a government network.
Pakistan says it carried out air strikes on 10 locations in Afghanistan on Thursday, targeting sites it said were used to store and launch drones, as tensions between the two neighbouring countries continued to escalate.
Here’s your AnewZ Daily Brief for 24 September 2026, with five key developments from the second day of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment