1 in 3 Reform UK voters has a positive view of Tommy Robinson 

LONDON — Tommy Robinson, the far-right anti-Islam activist who will lead a march through London on Saturday, is broadly unpopular in Britain — except among voters supporting Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. 

According to The POLITICO Poll by Public First, which questioned more than 2,000 people earlier this month, 36 percent of Reform UK voters have a “very” or “somewhat” positive view of Robinson. About as many Reform supporters — 31 percent — had a negative view of him. 

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has a history of criminal convictions for violence, fraud and possession of drugs, among other offenses, and co-founded the English Defence League. He is set to lead a “Unite the Kingdom” march of thousands of people through London on Saturday, to demonstrate for “national unity, free speech and Christian values.” 

The march, and a pro-Palestinian demonstration expected to take place at the same time, drew intensive police planning, with 4,000 officers, armored vehicles, helicopters, drones and for the first time facial recognition technology deployed to keep order in the capital. 

Nationally, Robinson is seen negatively by 47 percent of adults across all voter groups, compared to 17 percent who have a positive opinion of him. But the poll shows the extent to which Reform’s backers are sympathetic to the most extreme end of activism on the right. 

With Reform now consistently topping opinion polls — and winning elections across the country — the opinions of its voters stand to influence how the country is run in years to come at local level and potentially from Westminster, too. 

“Robinson has historically been a fringe figure in British politics, and that hasn’t changed. What has changed is that his supporters have, for the first time, coalesced around a party with a real shot at power,” said Seb Wride, head of polling at Public First. 

“Half of those with positive views of Robinson would now vote Reform, and they make up roughly a third of Reform’s base,” said Wride. “If Reform achieves the political power its recent electoral performance suggests, a substantial chunk of its coalition will sit at the edge of what many voters consider acceptable politics, with real sway over who the party has to court to hold itself together.”

Farage has sought to distance himself from Robinson in the past, saying he is not welcome in his party. 

And the poll suggests that Reform’s surge in popularity over the past two years — from a fringe party before the 2024 election to polling dominance today — has diluted the support for Robinson within its voting base. 

Among voters who backed Reform at the 2024 general election, 41 percent said they had a generally favorable view of Robinson, though that falls to 36 percent of people who said they would vote for Farage’s party today. Similarly, Reform voters today are more likely to have a critical view of Robinson than those who backed Reform two years ago — 31 percent, compared to 27 percent. 

“Reform’s base today is much broader than it was in 2024,” said Wride. “Robinson’s supporters may have found a home in Reform, but they now share it with a far more diverse coalition. If anything, Reform’s challenge now is building a platform that can hold together those with positive views of Robinson alongside voters whose disappointment with the two main governing parties is much more mainstream.”

More than half of respondents believe more people support Robinson’s protests than feel they can admit it. This doesn’t mean people secretly support the activist, according to Wride, but shows “how many people see his marches as the tip of an iceberg.” 

“Voters from every main party, including Greens (who are his clearest opponents) feel Robinson has silent supporters out there,” Wride said. 

The POLITICO Poll also sheds light on how public protests polarize opinion. 

In addition to Robinson’s march at the weekend, thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators will take to the streets of London. Respondents to the survey, which was run before the weekend’s events, were asked for their views on Israeli and Palestinian marches. 

When it comes to sympathy for protesters’ motives, there tends to be a clear partisan split. More than half of Labour voters — 53 percent — said they agreed or strongly agreed with the idea behind protests “against the actions of Israel in Gaza.” For Conservatives, the figure was 26 percent, and among Reform UK voters, 22 percent. 

Nationally, 36 percent of respondents said they agreed with the idea behind the Israeli and Palestinian protests, and 28 percent said they disagreed. The remainder said they did not know, or neither agreed nor disagreed. 

The POLITICO Poll by Public First surveyed 2,031 adults from May 8 to 11 across the U.K.