Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.
Already a member?
Log in
Far-right activist Daniel Thomas has been condemned by charities after footage showed him using a blade to slash a dinghy in the Channel while a rescue worker was onboard.
Thomas, who is known by the name Danny Tommo, filmed himself tracking two inflatable dinghies on Tuesday afternoon, which were carrying asylum seekers from France.
In the video clip, he can be seen approaching the dinghy, which is full of life jackets left by passengers, and using his blade to repeatedly stab holes in the side of the vessel.
He then shouts towards a rescue worker onboard, who is wearing an orange hi-vis outfit, to “get off” while escaping air from the dinghy can be audibly heard.
As he slashes the boat, Thomas can be heard shouting: “This is England. This is not France any more.”
After spotting the rescue worker, he says: “Get off the boat. You’ve got time to get off the boat.”
His boat then motors away, before the rescue worker can be seen climbing onto the larger emergency boat that was positioned next to the dinghy.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said it was conducting inquiries into the incident.
Officers made six arrests for offences including assaulting an emergency worker and aggravated trespass at a protest in Gosport on Tuesday night, following reports a dinghy with migrants on board was en route to the UK.
British rescue boats were sent to collect the passengers on the craft after they refused help from the French coastguard.
The French coastguard earlier said around 60 migrants on a small boat spent more than 33 hours at sea “in precarious conditions” and refused help as they were “determined to take all risks to reach the United Kingdom”.
It was expected the migrants would be taken to Gosport, leading to anti-migrant protesters gathering in the area. As a result, the vessel headed east along the coast, arriving in Dover after 12:30am on Wednesday morning.
Charities have condemned Thomas’s actions, with the Joint Council for Welfare of Immigrants branding it “violent and dangerous”.
Stand Up to Racism posted on X: “Danny Tommo already has a conviction for knife crime. The footage of him going wild with a knife and slashing a boat with [an emergency worker] on it in the Channel today is disgusting.”
Thomas – founder of anti-migration group Patriot Platform and an associate of political activist Tommy Robinson – was a leader of recent protests in Portsmouth and organised demonstrations in Dover. He regularly livestreams his actions to his followers.
In 2016, it was reported that he was jailed for two years after being convicted of attempted kidnapping. Portsmouth Crown Court heard how Thomas and two accomplices went “mob-handed” to the victim’s home armed with knives after wrongly accusing him of stealing drugs.
UK authorities are understood to have plans to deal with small boat arrivals further along the coast.
Some 17,480 migrants have arrived after crossing the Channel by boat so far this year, including 5,011 since Andy Burnham became prime minister.
The total so far for 2026 is down 46 per cent on the same point last year.
A government spokesperson said: “The Border Security Command works around the clock to protect our border and will continue to detain, check and process every small boat arrival.”
