Key facts
- Anti-migrant activists, organized as Patriot Platform, used lorries and wore balaclavas to block roads near Dover.
- The group's leader, Danny Thomas, stated the protest was a warning and aims to build a working-class voting bloc.
- Thomas organized a second protest in Portsmouth to block coaches carrying migrants.
- Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood urged police to use their powers against masked protesters.
- Patriot Platform's tactics appear to draw inspiration from environmental groups and US Christian nationalism.
- Thomas was previously jailed for two years in 2016 for attempted kidnapping.
Anti-migrant activists in the UK are adopting new, more coordinated tactics, including road blockades and the use of lorries, to protest against illegal immigration. The group Patriot Platform, led by Danny Thomas, staged an intimidating show of strength near the port of Dover, with dozens of men dressed in black and wearing paramilitary-style balaclavas blocking roads.
Thomas, who has a significant social media following, organized the protest, which he described as a warning. The group chanted "Christ is King" and "Stop the Boats." On Sunday, Thomas organized a second, more impromptu protest in Portsmouth, where activists attempted to block coaches carrying migrants.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood met with senior police officers to urge them to use their full powers to stop activists wearing face coverings, citing the fear factor and disruption caused. Some of Patriot Platform's tactics appear to be borrowed from environmental groups, while its leaders also draw inspiration and funding from the "Christian nationalism" movement in the United States.
William Allchorn, an expert on far-right movements, noted that the scale and coordination of Patriot Platform's activism, with hundreds of people descending on a location, is a new development. Thomas has stated his intention to build a working-class "voting bloc" to influence political parties, aiming to make voting fashionable and persuade parties to adopt his agenda. He has previously been jailed for attempted kidnapping.
Other groups in the anti-immigration space include Tommy Robinson's movement, Paul Golding's Britain First, Turning Point UK, and the neo-Nazi Patriotic Alternative. Hope Not Hate described Patriot Platform as a "far-right network of men happy to intimidate and inconvenience an entire town for what was effectively a publicity stunt."