Supporters of Tommy Robinson clash with police outside the gates to Downing Street in June after he was sent to prison

The far-right figurehead who styles himself Tommy Robinson says he has sacked his lawyers and intends to get himself sent back to jail when he appears in court this week for a contempt hearing.

Former assistants to Robinson said he scooped a “massive payday” when he was jailed for contempt in May, earning huge public visibility and hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations. Robinson was jailed for 13 months after confronting and filming men of Pakistani origin outside a court, where they were on trial for their alleged parts in Britain’s biggest sex grooming gang.

On Friday it emerged that the men were among 20 convicted as members of a gang that subjected girls as young as 11 to an “inhuman” campaign of rape