In an article published in the Sunday Independent, Tony Blair referenced the "problem within Islam" in the wake of the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich.

The former British Prime Minister stated that Islam is not compatible with "pluralistic, liberal, open-minded societies" and that the “seeds of future fanaticism and terror… are being sown" in the Middle East.

The far-right English Defence League's leader Tommy Robinson assumed that Blair's assertions meant that he had come round to the EDL's way of thinking.

However Blair attempted to make it clear that he and the EDL were not singing from the same hymn sheet.

But that was not the end of the matter. In a series of tweets aimed at Blair's official Twitter page, Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) branded Blair a "war criminal" and claimed that the ex-Prime Minister's foreign policy had led to increased extremism in town's like Robinson's hometown of Luton.