Far-right marches led by the self-styled “Danny Tommo” should not be treated like normal protests, the communities secretary, Angela Rayner, has said, calling the marches “intimidation” that should not be permitted. Rayner said the behaviour of some masked marchers – who have blocked roads and transport hubs – was not an acceptable form of protest. Daniel Thomas, the instigator of the marches over the past month, was arrested and charged last week after allegedly using a blade to slash an inflatable dinghy in the Channel while a rescue worker was onboard.
Rayner said the marches were frightening local people. I’ve been on many protests myself when I was in my union days. We have music, we have banners, but we don’t wear balaclavas and shout divisive rhetoric down the street.
Masked and hooded anti-migrant activists from the movement have convened in English coastal towns and ports, in one case blocking traffic in and out of the port of Dover. Rayner said she was deeply concerned by the way social media was amplifying extreme voices – especially those targeting the RNLI. On the day that a 10-year-old child and two women died attempting to cross the Channel, Rayner said there needed to be more humanity about how migrants were described and treated when they attempted to cross in small boats.
But when you’ve got a human being at risk of death, do we let them drown? Yes, we politicians have a discussion about policies, about people we give asylum to, about how we stop boats. But [to] attack volunteers that save people from drowning?
If there’s a risk to life at sea, an RNLI volunteer without any political persuasion at all or any ideology will go out and will save lives at sea.
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