Irish parliamentarians have called on their government to investigate how an Irish passport was obtained by Tommy Robinson, who has been accused of inciting riots from abroad.
The Luton-born far-right leader travels on an Irish passport in his real name – Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – and was believed to have qualified for it via his mother, an Irish immigrant to Britain.
However, questions have been raised about the validity of the passport after an official form issued to Robinson when he was detained by Canadian immigration authorities in June stated that his place of birth was “Ireland”.
Charles Flanagan, a former justice minister who chairs the Irish parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee, said: “Any questions over the integrity of the Irish passport system must be taken most seriously.
“Eligibility for Irish citizenship and grounds for holding an Irish passport are clearly defined in law. Any alleged violation must not only be taken seriously but acted upon and subject to formal investigation by the appropriate authorities.”
Two other members of the Irish parliament also expressed concern. Duncan Smith, a Labour party Dáil member, said: “If there are any question marks over the integrity of someone’s passport then that must be investigated. Accurate country of birth information is integral to any passport application.”
He called on the UK Foreign Office and Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs to liaise in relation to the accuracy of information given. “We must take on all far-right activism when we see it. If someone is travelling on an Irish passport and fomenting far-right hate then we have a responsibility to explore all methods of pressure to stop it,” Smith added.
“It is concerning that someone who is inciting racist violence across Britain and Ireland appears to be travelling on an Irish passport,” said Paul Murphy, a socialist parliamentarian.
“It is doubly concerning that the Canadian documentation suggests that his place of birth was falsely given as Ireland. Is that what it says on his passport? If so, his passport would have been issued on a fraudulent basis and could be revoked.”
It is unclear why Robinson has chosen to travel on the Irish passport. One reason may be to avoid post-Brexit queues at airports, an irony given that the far-right leader was a committed supporter of leaving the European Union.
However, he also has a number of criminal convictions, ranging from assaulting an off-duty police officer to stalking, fraud and drug possession. In 2013, he was jailed for 10 months for using someone else’s passport to travel to the US.
He was arrested in June in Canada on suspicion of committing an immigration offence. The image of the immigration authority form was tweeted by Robinson after he was detained, having been ordered to stay in the country and hand over his passport.
Robinson has been cultivating links with the emerging Irish far right and visited the country in February last year, telling followers on social media that he had come to “report” on anti-immigrant sentiment.
While his presence was welcomed by some among the Irish far right, others were more hostile towards cooperation with British equivalents such as Robinson, who was a member of the British National party in the 2000s.
