Populism and the British Far-right:

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A Critical Discourse Study examining the psycho-discursive construction of Tommy Robinson as an anti-establishment, working class 'Hero'.'Tommy Robinson' (real name Stephen) has establishedhimself as the dominant figure in new, evolving milieu offar-right British politics. Describing himself as a right-wingactivist and journalist, he claims to represent the 'workingclass' and is stylised as a defender of British rights andvalues, fighting against censorship, the establishment,and the 'Islamification of Britain'. Through a synthesis ofKelsey's (2015, 2016) psycho-discursive and Discourse-Mythology Approach (DMA) and Wodak's Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) (2015), this study willinvestigate how affect, myth and storytelling contribute tothe construction of 'Tommy Robinson' as a populist, antiestablishmentworking class 'hero'. It will combineanalysis of media texts with qualitative semi-structuredinterviews to investigate the historical, psychological andsocio-cultural complexities of this narrative. It willconsider how Yaxley-Lennon uses populist discourses toframe and contest British working-class values, and thechallenges faced in refuting his politics of fear,nationalism and division. It will use a purposive samplingstrategy to select a range of multimodal media texts frommainstream and alternative media, conducting aqualitative CDS analysis of competing narratives, texts,genres and discourses. A snowballing strategy will beused to identify supporters of Yaxley-Lennon that identifyas 'working class', with media texts from the first stage ofanalysis used as prompts to explore interpretations. Thestudy aims to better understand the complexpsychological and affective mechanisms that arecontributing to the growing acceptance of radical rightdiscourses and the increasing popularity of figures suchas 'Tommy Robinson'.