The Channel Nine TV presenter Karl Stefanovic has posted a video of himself embracing the UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who is set to appear on his podcast.
The award-winning broadcaster also told another UK activist, Ant Middleton, a former soldier who has spoken at Robinson’s “unite the kingdom” rallies, he would “make a great prime minister”, in an interview on his podcast, the Karl Stefanovic Show, on Monday.
Stefanovic posted a clip on social media on Tuesday morning Australian time in which he is walking down a London street with his arm slung around Robinson, who has spearheaded recent nationalist demonstrations in the UK.
Robinson asks Stefanovic to finish a sentence: “Keir Starmer is a ….”
Stefanovic responds “wanker” and the pair erupt in laughter.
The post’s caption refers to Robinson as “the ultimate disruptor” and says he will be the next guest on Stefanovic’s podcast.
Stefanovic is one of Australia’s most famous television presenters. He reportedly earns $2.8m at Nine, where he anchors major live news events and co-hosts the Today breakfast show.
But he is understood to be making exit plans from television. Nine approved the podcast launch late last year, in return for him taking a pay cut.
Robinson has been a prominent figure on the far right in the UK for the best part of a decade.
He was among those to share graphic footage on social media of a Sudanese refugee alleged to have carried out a knife attack on a man in Belfast this month.
The viral footage led to what anti-racist group Hope Not Hate described as a trigger event, where “something horrifying happens” and it is seized on by the far right, who blame “mass migration” for it.
Homes and cars were burned in the riots after the alleged incident.
Earlier this month, British police seized Robinson’s phones under counter-terrorism laws on his return from a trip to Russia, where he met Elon Musk’s father. He was held for about three hours before being released.
Robinson has a lengthy criminal record. It includes convictions for violence, public order offences, and financial and immigration frauds. He also has convictions for stalking and harassing journalists and has twice been convicted for contempt of court. He was banned from entering the US but was able to visit earlier this year, when he was hosted by the Trump administration.
Stefanovic’s rightward shift and podcast success have prompted comparisons to the US podcast host Joe Rogan, which Stefanovic has leaned into, riposting “Joe Bogan.”
His Australian guests have included the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, and others from the party such as Barnaby Joyce and Sean Bell.
Other rightwing guests include the former Liberal prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard, and Coalition figures Alex Antic, Matt Canavan and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has appeared as has South Australia’s Labor premier, Peter Malinauskas.
In Monday’s interview with Middleton, the far-right activist told Stefanovic British culture and identity were being suppressed while “outside or external cultures” were being “accelerated”. He said that caused confusion, which led to frustration, anger and then to violence. He said he did not condone violence but “can understand the civil unrest situation”.
“People have had enough,” he said.
Stefanovic replied that there were people around “who I’d love, you know, to follow, because they’re able to articulate it”.
“People like Tommy Robinson,” he said.
Middleton, a former special forces soldier, has appeared alongside Robinson (whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) at rallies. The right-wing party Reform UK has recently appeared to distance itself from Middleton and his increasingly extreme views.
Stefanovic went on to talk about One Nation’s surge in the polls in Australia and asked Middleton how to convert Reform UK’s popularity into seats in parliament.
Middleton lamented that the right had been led by their emotions, “over-passionate” and “over-patriotic”.
“You can’t be over-patriotic,” Stefanovic said, before telling Middleton he was “what this country needs”.
“You’d make a great prime minister,” he said. Middleton responded that there was “definitely a calling for that” but that it was at least a decade off.
The pair also discussed using military forces to “stop those boats”.
Middleton said he hoped Australia would “look at the UK and you’ll learn from us before you get to the stage that we’re at and it’s potentially too late”, warning of the “woke mind virus”.
Nine declined to comment on Stefanovic’s podcast, which he runs independently of the network.
