Who is Tommy Robinson? The Karl Stefanovic guest who may have cost Australia’s famed TV host his job

The man who calls himself Tommy Robinson has roared into prominence in Australia after the morning TV mainstay Karl Stefanovic posted an interview with Robinson for his podcast.

The fallout was swift. Nine Entertainment, Australia’s largest locally owned media empire, is widely expected to sever ties with Stefanovic, and he will not appear on a radio show with Eddie McGuire on Friday.

Robinson’s politics are well known in the UK and Europe, but he has a far lower profile here. So who is the man whose very presence in an interview may have cost Australia’s highest-paid TV personality his job?

This was exacerbated by Stefanovic’s credulity. His interview did not rebut or confront anything Robinson said.

“It’s great to speak with you in person. I really do admire your tenacity and the courage that you’re showing in trying to stand up for what you believe is right,” Stefanovic told Robinson at the end of the podcast.

Robinson also weighed into the politics of Australia (a country he has twice been refused a visa to visit), saying he admired Pauline Hanson as someone who had defended him “from that side of the world”.

“Looking at her rise, do you know how happy I am for her? Because she’s been through what I’ve been through. She’s been condemned, attacked, battered, every name under the sun. And here she is. She’s carried on against all of that backlash.

“I’m a man. It’s not easy. So for a woman, the amount of slander, the amount of horrible, disgusting things she’s had said about her. She just carried on fighting. And the truth comes out in the end.”