TOMMY ROBINSON lost an appeal against his 18-month contempt of court sentence today.

The English Defence League founder was jailed last October after admitting 10 breaches of a 2021 High Court order that forbade him from repeating libellous claims against a young Syrian refugee.

In 2018, then schoolboy Mr Hijazi was assaulted at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield.

After a clip of the incident went viral, Mr Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, made false claims, including that Mr Hijazi had attacked girls at his school.

Mr Hijazi sued Mr Yaxley-Lennon, who was then barred from repeating the false allegations.

The Court of Appeal heard on Friday that Mr Yaxley-Lennon’s mental health, combined with his segregation in prison, is “making him ill.”

Representing him was Alisdair Williamson KC, who said he has ADHD and “complex post-traumatic stress disorder,” which the sentencing judge was not fully aware of.

Dismissing the appeal today, Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Edis and Lord Justice Warby said new evidence about Robinson’s mental health “does not on analysis show either a significant exacerbation of a known medical condition or a material new factor.”

They said: “Even taking the appellant’s case at its highest, we see no reasonable basis for the contention that the conditions that he is experiencing are so substantially worse than the judge anticipated at the time of the sanction decision as to call for a downward adjustment.”

They continued: “The evidence falls far short of the standard for a successful criminal appeal based on fresh medical evidence.”

After the ruling, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office said: “Stephen Yaxley-Lennon repeatedly ignored judges’ orders and continued to spread libellous allegations.

“His 18-month sentence reflected how gravely the court considers contempt.

“We respect the court’s decision to refuse permission to appeal the sentence imposed.”