Former English Defence Leader and failed MEP candidate Tommy Robinson – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – has asked President Trump for political asylum.

Most of us will have viewed it as the latest Robinson political stunt, another attempt by the far-right to play the victim, or just a desperate criminal trying to avoid a fourth jail term.

But what if this is exactly the experience Robinson needs? He’s built a career, got a little bit rich and very (in)famous from hating not only refugees and asylum seekers, but many of his fellow Brits of immigrant background – especially Muslims. Maybe if the Trump admin puts him in a border camp, separates him from his children and denies him his human rights, he will finally be able to empathise with those he has demonised for so long.

Robinson has never shown even the slightest compassion for many of those he trades in the hatred of. He has never recognised that, far from being a national security threat, the Muslims who he treats as ‘enemy combatants’ are, by and large, on the receiving end of Islamophobia and racism they have done nothing to deserve.

He has never admitted that the ‘migrants’ (as he calls them) from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere have a right to humanitarian protection. He hasn’t acknowledged them as refugees and asylum seekers.

It is possible that he truly feels persecuted and at risk, and that he feels the need to flee Britain. His claim that his life is endangered by ‘Jihadi gangs’ in UK prisons would be closely examined by the Department of Homeland Security, within the boundaries of their ‘credible fear’ test. They would be sure to note that he has safely survived three prior prison terms, the latest of which he emerged from looking healthy and toned, and ready to launch a (failed) career in electoral politics.

He is also likely to fail any test of good character in subsequent applications for permanent residency or citizenship, particularly since he has already been detained at the US border for trying to enter the country with someone else’s passport. His own passport is in the name of Paul Harris, not his aliases Stephen Yaxley-Lennon or Tommy Robinson, but it is normal for refugees to have complicated paperwork.

It is ironic that Robinson has done so many of the things that immigrants are accused of – only without the excuse that he was fleeing a warzone. This hasn’t stopped him whipping up anti-immigrant sentiments the likes of which Britain hasn’t seen in a generation.

So it would be poetic justice if Robinson’s journey ended in the conditions inflicted on many of those ‘Muslim invaders’ on their arrival in Europe.

Perhaps months or years spent in a border camp, aggressively shepherded by border guards, would give him time to reflect on what it’s like to be born without a British passport and a smirking, white face.

Maybe he would emerge an expert on human rights law if his three children were taken from him and given one square foot of space in a cell – all for the crime of being the child of an asylum seeker. He may even strike up correspondence with Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, thanking her for describing his new home as a ‘concentration camp’, and asking for her help.

The label ‘white privilege’ is overused as a poor excuse for discussion and debate, but Robinson is a picture of it. He has used his position to become a global celebrity with a following of millions of angry young men. He’s become Britain’s ‘best funded politician’, living in a six-bedroom £1million mansion, complete with hot tub.

He has had a comfortable spot from which to observe the imminent collapse of the West at the hands of Islamo-fascist invaders in Facebook Live videos, and it would certainly be a shock to suddenly be living on rations with fellow asylum seekers from Honduras and Paraguay.

The right-wing US think tanks that have bankrolled him with thousands in dark money will inevitably abandon him – how could they continue to support a migrant who is jeopardising the territorial security of the United States of America?

His support by shadowy, wealthy foreigners makes his conspiracy theories about global Muslim plans to replace Europe with ‘Eurabia’ even more ironic.

For years, Robinson has played the victim. Maybe it’s time for him to try it out for real. Be careful though, Tommy: the internet is full of people who hate asylum seekers with criminal pasts.

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