Nick Tenconi is a “f*cking idiot”, Turning Point UK is “under-managed” and “will not go anywhere”, and Tommy Robinson’s support base is “brain dead” – according to far-right influencer Young Bob.
‘Young Bob’ is one of the young rising stars in Britain’s far-right scene.
As well as having gained over 100,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter), he is an ambassador for Turning Point UK (an offshoot of the far-right American organisation), an associate of the serial criminal and anti-Muslim extremist Stephen Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson), and – in a sign of the increasing acceptance of far-right views in the media – a regular guest on TalkTV.
But the scene Young Bob is involved in doesn’t seem like a happy ship. Earlier this year, an undercover HOPE not hate reporter found out his real views of those he works with…
Young Bob was particularly disparaging about Nick Tenconi, who as well being leader of UKIP is the chief operating officer of Turning Point UK – the organisation for which Young Bob is an ambassador.
“Nick being the leader of UKIP is like me calling myself a captain because I own a dinghy,” he said, adding: “Like, it’s got the nice name, but what exactly are you doing with it? And what exactly is it going to have an effect on?”
Young Bob went on to comment that Tenconi “found out that a good way of being popular was always getting in the news for the wrong thing,” before referring to him as a “f*cking r*tard” and “f*cking idiot”. Later in the conversation, he said Tenconi is “genuine” but that his “politics is stupid”.
If all of that wasn’t bad enough for Tenconi, Young Bob also took time to declare that he doesn’t attend UKIP rallies consensually (but only because he has to “report” on them) and explain about “Nick’s little grift”.
He said: “If you ever want a successful march, get behind a banner, everyone thinks there’s hundreds of you even though there’s like less than a hundred… Now Nick’s little grift is that he’ll have a banner to ensure that there’s bigger numbers and then rant on about things that aren’t popular like this is the tenth crusade… you can’t even count.”
The young far-right influencer also spoke about the first Turning Point UK demonstration he attended in rather damning terms: “The first Turning Point demo I ever went to was when the Palestinians were marching down the Cenotaph and we decided to do an Israeli march, where we’re all holding Israeli flags… and then this is why Nick is insane, because we had a speaker who was walking up the front, away from the crowd, screaming: ‘This is a crusade!’”
Not only did Young Bob have tough criticism for Tenconi, he also castigated Turning Point UK as an organisation.
When asked how closely linked Turning Point UK is with the American organisation, Young Bob responded that he had done a “test”.
He explained: “I messaged the [American] COO because he follows me on Twitter. He gave me a response. Essentially a good way of indicating whether you’re linked is that if you send a message to the boss of the American branch, if he sends it back to your boss, then it’s linked.”
He detailed that he “sent a message to him” saying the organisation is “under-managed, underfunded and will not go anywhere”, adding: “He sent me a message agreeing with the statement and nothing ever happened to me.”
Nick Tenconi and the rest of Turning Point UK’s team aren’t the only ones likely to be miffed by Young Bob’s views.
In the last few months, the far-right influencer has become increasingly associated with Stephen Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson). On 10 October, Lennon proudly announced on X, “‘Young Bob’ joins the team.”
Lennon shared a video of Young Bob, in which the young far-right influencer explained that he’ll be “reporting live and direct on Tommy Robinson’s YouTube and Twitter page between 1 and 4pm on the first Sunday of every month.” Lennon wrote above the video: “Reporting live for my X channel from Speakers’ Corner, Bob will be hosting ‘Change My Mind’ stands and challenging public opinion on immigration, economics, Islam, and more.”
It must be bad news for Lennon, then, that Young Bob has described his support base as “brain dead” and suggested he has an obsequious inner circle.
He claimed that Lennon has a “private appreciation of Muslims that integrate in society”, before commenting: “However, when you bring such a brain dead support base, unfortunately the nuance gets lost in the crowd of people that are protesting with you.”
Young Bob also shared his views on Lennon’s inner circle, explaining: “You’d think that like the whole sucking up to Tommy was something that they did online to be popular. No, they do it off camera. It’s like who can be Tommy’s best boy… I was in a van with Don Keith and all his security… I was in a transit van for about an hour… like oh my goodness, I went into politics not to lick their arses.”
Given his clear and understandable frustration, we wonder why Young Bob continues to bother with Nick Tenconi, Turning Point, and Stephen Lennon.
Prefer to listen? Click the play button to hear the audio version. Harry Shukman Reform UK is staffed by oddballs and enigmas, but none odder…
