partner. Name Robinson's birth name is Stephen Christopher Yaxley. The name Tommy Robinson is a pseudonym taken from a prominent member of the "Men In Gear" (MIG) football hooligan crew, which follows Luton Town Football Club. The nom de guerre successfully hid Robinson's identity as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and his criminal history, until the connection was uncovered in July 2010 by Searchlight magazine. Robinson has also used the names Andrew McMaster, Paul Harris, Wayne King, and Stephen Lennon. Early life Robinson was born Stephen Christopher Yaxley in Luton, England. In an interview with Victoria Derbyshire on BBC Radio Five live in 2010, he said that his parents "were Irish immigrants to this country". His mother, who worked at a local bakery, remarried when Robinson was still young; his stepfather, Thomas Lennon, worked at the Vauxhall car plant in Luton. According to Robinson, after leaving school he applied to study aircraft engineering at Luton Airport: "I got an apprenticeship 600 people applied for, and they took four people on." He qualified in 2003 after five years of study, but then lost his job when he was convicted of assaulting an off-duty police officer in a drunken argument. He served a 12-month prison sentence. Robinson joined the far-right and fascist political party British National Party (BNP), then led by Nick Griffin, in 2004. When questioned about this by the journalist Andrew Neil in June 2013, he said that he had left after one year, stating he did not know Nick Griffin was in the National Front and did not know that non-whites could not join the organisation. Robinson said, "I joined, I saw what it was about, it was not for me." Robinson was involved with the group United Peoples of Luton, formed in response to a March 2009 protest against Royal Anglian Regiment troops returning from the Afghan War being attacked by the Islamist groups Al-Muhajiroun and Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah. English Defence League Robinson founded the English Defence League (EDL) in 2009 with his cousin Kevin Carroll, and became its leader with Carroll as deputy leader. Robinson stated that he had been prompted to found the EDL after he had read a newspaper article about local Islamists attempting to recruit men outside a bakery in Luton to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan. Robinson has appeared masked at protests. Although Robinson repeatedly insisted from the early days of the organisation that