Batons and synthetic pepper spray were used to repel hundreds of masked, black-clad vigilantes in Portsmouth on Sunday, it has emerged, as the policing minister said officers had been injured as they repelled organised “aggression”. After police contained the weekend’s second disruptive demonstration against asylum seekers travelling to the UK in small boats, it was claimed that officers in Hampshire were pushed off their motorbikes and pelted with bricks. Sarah Jones, the Home Office minister, condemned groups behind the disorder for promoting “racism and thuggery”.
Activists wearing balaclavas clashed with police in Portsmouth on Sunday evening after a dinghy reached the UK from Normandy. Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary have launched an investigation into potential assaults and criminal damage. Daniel Thomas, a far-right agitator closely linked to Tommy Robinson, the longtime anti-Islam figure whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, claimed to have arranged the protest.
Thomas was also behind disruption in Dover on Saturday, when crowds of people dressed in black and wearing balaclavas blocked the road around the port for several hours. In a statement to MPs, Jones said: “Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary, with the support of other neighbouring forces, used a dispersal notice to ensure public safety and officers were forced to use batons and Pava spray to maintain order in the face of some aggression.” Spencer Wragg, the chair of the Hampshire police federation, said one of the officers injured was a rookie who had only finished training school three days earlier. About 120 people seeking asylum were brought to shore in Hampshire after travelling to the UK on a “mega-dinghy” which had departed from the Normandy coast and was at sea for roughly 10 hours.
The landing point of the dinghy was farther west than most small boat arrivals. Officials are concerned that people smugglers are starting to target new routes across England’s south coast, with craft launched from a wider stretch of the French shoreline. An estimated 200 protesters gathered, and clashed with riot police on Sunday night, vowing to prevent migrants leaving the port.
Footage showed some chanting “send them back” as police officers with shields raised tried to maintain order. Amid concerns that police were caught unawares by the unrest in Dover on Saturday, Jones said: “Work is ongoing to establish any lessons and ensure that relevant intelligence is shared at pace across our law enforcement system.” Labour and Lib Dem MPs called on the government to explain why police appeared to have been caught off-guard by the events in Dover and Portsmouth. Mike Tapp, the Labour MP for Dover and a former Home Office minister, questioned why the police were not aware of plans to block the local port.
The Liberal Democrat Home Office spokesperson, Max Wilkinson, asked: “How is it that far-right thugs in balaclavas were able to close Britain’s busiest port without the police receiving any prior intelligence? And how is it that then an apparently separate group with some commonalities were then able to blockade another site the next evening?” Jones said there was “a crossover in terms of online activity” and the government would learn lessons from the disorder. In an on-camera confrontation on Monday, Thomas, known as Danny Tommo, told the Reform UK home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, that the Patriot Platform group he led would deliver working-class votes to Reform – but expressed anger at Nigel Farage’s criticisms of Dover demonstrators for wearing balaclavas.
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