Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, says he was held at Heathrow Airport for around three hours on Saturday evening under Schedule 3 of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019, with his phone seized by officers and no specific reason given for the stop.
The 43-year-old posted about the incident on X, describing it as “absolute f***ing madness,” and subsequently shared photographs of the detention paperwork. He said he was launching a legal defence fund through his Urban Scoop website in anticipation of further legal costs. Authorities had not commented on the matter at the time of publication.
Schedule 3 powers, distinct from the more widely used Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, give examining officers at ports and borders broad authority to question people arriving or departing, detain them for up to six hours, search them and their belongings, and seize electronic devices for examination. The powers can be exercised without individualised suspicion at the initial examination stage and are intended to target what authorities define as “hostile activity,” including threats to national security or acts linked to foreign states.
The detention is the latest in a series of encounters Robinson has had with border and counter-terrorism authorities. In July 2024, he was stopped at the Channel Tunnel terminal in Folkestone under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 while driving through in a borrowed Bentley, and was subsequently charged for allegedly refusing to provide his phone PIN. He was acquitted of the charge in late 2025, with the judge ruling that the original stop had been based on Robinson’s political beliefs rather than a genuine suspicion of terrorism, and criticising the officers’ handling of the examination. Robinson said at the time that Elon Musk had covered his legal fees. He was separately arrested on suspicion of assault at Luton Airport in August 2025 after a train station incident.
The latest stop comes after Robinson’s reported trip to Moscow, where he met Errol Musk and commented on what he described as anti-immigration sentiment. His supporters have responded to the Heathrow incident by characterising it as state harassment, while critics have pointed to his history of legal issues and continued monitoring by authorities as justification for ongoing scrutiny under border security legislation.
No charges have been announced in connection with Saturday’s stop.
