The chairman of the Hampshire Police Federation said seven police officers “were assaulted” during an anti-migrant demonstration in Portsmouth, as concerns grow over more far-right disorder and protests across the UK.
Less than 48 hours after masked vigilantes blockaded roads in Dover, around 200 black-clad activists descended on Portsmouth, where a small boat with 140 asylum seekers on board was intercepted off the coast on Sunday evening.
In an ensuing standoff with police, some of the protesters, who were trying to stop the newly arrived migrants from being driven away, attacked officers and vehicles.
Spencer Wragg, chairman of the Hampshire Police Federation, told LBC that seven police officers were attacked and many police vehicles were damaged during the protest.
He said: “We’ve had several officers that were assaulted, obviously during that incident. The number is seven officers.
“Thankfully, there’s no major injuries, but we’ve seen a plethora of different injuries caused in different ways. There’s been a lot of criminal damage as well as the assault on my colleagues.
“What we saw was people breaking the law, assaulting officers, causing damage to property, and I’m sure for those residents in that area, that must be quite a frightening experience.”
Asked if any arrests were made, Mr Wragg said: “There were no arrests made on the night.
“Obviously, as you would expect, and there’s an ongoing investigation, and I’ll anticipate there will be arrests in the coming days and weeks.”
On Monday, the Home Office strongly condemned the “intimidating and thuggish behaviour”. However, politicians and campaigners raised fears of further unrest across the UK, particularly along the southern coast, with 625 people crossing the English Channel illegally over the past seven days.
Concerns have also been raised that traffickers could be shifting their desired destinations across England’s coast.
Local Patriot groups, thought to be part of a national Patriot Platform network led by Tommy Robinson associate Daniel Thomas, urged their members to be on standby to react to more migrant boats arriving at ports such as Bournemouth, Poole and Portsmouth.
On Sunday evening, police attended and monitored a smaller protest formed in Lake Drive in Poole, which moved to West Quay Road. Dorset Police warned people to “exercise caution when reacting to unverified information being shared online or on social media”.
A minister has said the responsibility for police being unprepared for anti-migrant demonstrations lies “fairly and squarely” with protest organisers.
“It’s the fault of the organisers of protests if the police were not aware,” Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden told BBC Breakfast.
He said: “It’s not the Government or the Home Office who planned the protest. That’s the fault of those who planned the protests.
“And if they do that in a covert way, then you can have a situation where the police won’t know in advance, but the responsibility for that lies fairly and squarely with those who organised the protests, not with the Home Office or the Government.”
Asked about authorities being unprepared for small boat arrivals at Portsmouth, he said it is a “constant and ongoing effort” to adapt to new routes people smugglers use to bring migrants across the Channel.
Of the protests, he said: “I accept that people are worried about people arriving on small boats. I accept that they may be angry about it.
“But what we can’t have is intimidation of the police. We cannot have threatening behaviour, and we had some of that at the weekend, and that’s simply not acceptable.”
