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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
A member of the European Parliament from Poland’s national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party has been barred from entering the UK, where he had planned to attend and speak at a rally in London this weekend organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
On Tuesday evening, Dominik Tarczyński shared a screenshot of a message from the British Home Office informing him that his Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), which allows entry to the UK without a visa, had been cancelled.
“This is because: Your presence in the UK is not considered conducive to the public good,” read the message. “You cannot appeal this decision.”
This is what communism looks like in the 21st century. I have just been denied entry to the UK in order to speak at the largest patriotic event in Europe.
Starmer will be sued by me. Not the government, not the Home Office but Starmer personally. Once you lose the next election,… pic.twitter.com/foAcqWOA0D
— Dominik Tarczyński MEP (@D_Tarczynski) May 12, 2026
“This is what communism looks like in the 21st century,” wrote Tarczyński, who said that he would sue “communist” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer personally.
Former British Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss described the decision to ban Tarczyński as “shocking”. She noted that, in the European Parliament, he is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group that the British Conservative Party was also part of before Brexit.
However, Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, wrote on social media that, by “addressing the prime minister of our ally Great Britain, Sir Keir Starmer, as a ‘communist’, Tarczyński has unfortunately confirmed that he is an unhinged extremist”.
Tarczyński is even “more dangerous for Poland than for the UK”, added Sikorski, who is a deputy leader of the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), Poland’s main ruling party.
PiS ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023 and is now the main opposition party. Tarczyński is not a particularly senior figure, serving as an MP from 2015 to 2020 and since then as an MEP, but he enjoys a relatively high profile internationally due to his vocal opposition to Muslim immigration to Europe.
In a 2018 interview with Channel 4 News in the UK, Tarczyński declared his pride that Poland was taking in “zero illegal Muslim migrants”.
Tarczyński has ties to Donald Trump’s MAGA movement as well as to Robinson (whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), the most prominent far-right, anti-Muslim activist in the UK.
https://twitter.com/D_Tarczynski/status/1457634518974795776
Last year, Tarczyński marched alongside Robinson at his Unite the Kingdom rally, which drew over 100,000 people to London. The Polish politician also gave a speech from the main stage at the event, leading the crowd in a chant of “Send them [migrants] back”.
“We have to be very radical,” declared Tarczyński. “Zero means zero. Enough is enough…Protect your family, protect your children, fight for your country.”
“We are taking our Christian Europe back. We are taking this continent, because this is our home,” he continued. “I love Europe. I love my culture. I love my identity. I love this crowd. I love being European.”
FREE SPEECH FESTIVAL!
London, 13.09.2025 pic.twitter.com/ab2pXA5Y8R— Dominik Tarczyński MEP (@D_Tarczynski) September 13, 2025
In recent days, Tarczyński has been using his social media profiles to promote his participation a new Unite the Kingdom rally, which is being organised this Saturday by Robinson in London. The revocation of his ETA, however, means it is unlikely he will now attend.
On Monday, Starmer announced that the UK would block “far-right agitators” from entering the country to attend the event, reports The Guardian.
The Standard reports that among those banned are US-based commentators Joey Mannarino and Valentina Gomez, Belgian politician Filip Dewinter, Catalan commentator Ada Lluch and Dutch activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek.
Last week, another Polish politician, Sławomir Mentzen, who is one of the leaders of the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), another opposition group, was briefly held at a London airport when entering the UK before eventually being allowed to proceed into the country for a private family visit.
Polish far-right leader Sławomir Mentzen was held for hours at a London airport before eventually being allowed to enter the UK.
"This crumbling state has no problem with being colonised by Indians and Arabs, but it does have a problem with me," he wrote https://t.co/WX3jq6foIW
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 9, 2026
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Christian CREUTZ © European Union 2024 – Source: EP
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
