Tommy Robinson, or Stephen Yaxley-Lennon if we want to refer to him by his real name, announced last week that he’s standing for the north-west of England in the European elections. The former British National party (BNP) member wants to take the same seat that his then leader Nick Griffin held from 2009 to 2014. Tommy Robinson is a far-right thug who went from being a member of the BNP to co-founding the English Defence League (EDL).

He talks about standing up for ordinary working-class people but he is not interested in real solutions to the problems faced by the working classes in the north-west. His answer to the despair people feel after more than a decade of austerity and Tory attacks on the welfare state is to scapegoat Muslims and migrants. Robinson’s EDL was an inspiration for far-right terrorist Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway on 2011.

He has done his best to stoke Islamophobia and stir up hatred and division his whole political life.

Darren Osborne, the terrorist who attacked Finsbury Park mosque, killing a man, was “brainwashed” by far-right material including social media posts by Robinson – according to his partner Sarah Andrews.

For the first time we have a generation who don’t believe things are going to be better than they were for their parents. Added to this we have the hostile environment towards migrants created by leading Tories – from Jacob Rees-Mogg, retweeting statements by a key figure from a far-right party in Europe, and the detention and deportation of people from the Windrush generation, to home secretary Sajid Javid, rushing back from his Christmas break to announce the deployment of patrol boats against refugees crossing the Channel.

Now Donald Trump has been invited for a state visit this summer. Trump, like Tommy Robinson, represents the politics of hatred and division. In Europe Trump’s victory was celebrated by the far right. The announcement of a state visit only helps to normalise this type of politics. It creates a space for Tommy Robinson, racists and Nazis everywhere.

Already we’ve seen a rise in attacks against Muslims and Muslim women in particular. I was attacked in a fish-and-chip shop in London, and while the incident was widely reported there are countless incidents that never get attention.

Robinson’s attempt to build a street movement through the EDL was crushed by anti-racists in Britain. Now he’s looking to gain credibility by being elected to the European parliament. This will give him a far bigger platform to push his hate and be paid to do it.

The proportional representation system in the European elections means that Robinson needs only a small percentage of the vote to win a seat. This could be his best chance to enter mainstream politics. Robinson may be the poster boy of the far right, but the anti-racist movement can put a stop to his ambitions.

Working-class people in the north-west have a history of seeing off the far right. We got rid of Nick Griffin – and we can do the same with Robinson. By stopping Robinson we will push back the whole of the far right.

Whether we voted leave or remain we must stand up to racism and stop this thug. Robinson is hoping for a low turnout in the European elections which could give him a chance of gaining a bigger percentage of the overall vote and a seat. On 23 May we must use our vote to keep Tommy Robinson out of the European parliament.

•Nahella Ashraf is co-chair of Greater Manchester Stand Up To Racism