The leader of a far-right anti-migrant group in the UK has claimed he is able to mobilise thousands of supporters to protest at a proposed site to house "small-boat" migrants.
Daniel Thomas, the founder of the Patriot Platform, organised recent protests in Portsmouth after the arrival of more than 140 asylum seekers crammed on to one so-called mega dinghy.
His group was also behind a protest in Dover in which black-clad, masked protesters blocked roads while chanting “stop the boats”. The action by around 300 Patriot Platform supporters caught police off guard.
Mr Thomas, also known as Danny Tommo, is an associate of the far-right anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
He has now set his sights on the village of Piddington in Oxfordshire, where residents are opposing government plans to house 1,250 male asylum seekers at a former Ministry of Defence site.
Speaking to Mr Robinson on the fellow agitator's YouTube channel, Mr Thomas said “how powerful would it be if 5,000 men … surround that camp, we take tents, we sit there for days and we don’t let them get in”.
He suggested the Patriot Platform would be “reinforced from members from the north, from Scotland, from Ireland, all peacefully”.
A group of 133 women in Piddington last week sent an open letter to every female Member of Parliament to share their concerns about the plans, saying “we will not feel safe walking our streets”. The village is holding a symbolic referendum on whether to leave the UK.
Some Patriotic Platform supporters are now reportedly considering taking a vessel out to sea to confront migrant boats as they cross to the UK. It was described as “an early-stage idea” that could become a “major moment” if a boat carrying migrants were stopped, The Sun reported.
There is no suggestion Mr Thomas himself is involved in planning any direct action in the English Channel, which according to reports could involve sailing out into international waters to turn around one of the boats carrying migrants.
In January, the French government banned 10 British far-right activists linked to the Raise the Colours group from entering France after they had posted footage of themselves harassing asylum seekers waiting to cross the Channel.
Dr William Allchorn, an expert on the far-right from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, said a high level of organisation in groups such as Raise the Colours and the Patriot Platform, as well as the wearing of balaclavas to hide members' identities, was a “new development” that gives the activists a paramilitary feel.
The past two years have “seen a lot of energy and momentum within the street-protest scene with Tommy Robinson and the United Kingdom rallies mobilising record numbers”, Dr Allchorn told The National.
“They've at least tried to keep to large demonstrations peaceful, with vigilante kind of tactics quite peripheral. So what we're seeing is kind of an uptick in that and the use of very clandestine, co-ordinated and sophisticated techniques.”
Dr Allchorn said established far-right groups have often inserted themselves into localised protests and become involved in organising them.
“I think what's new is them attaching themselves almost as this kind of militaristic or paramilitary flank to a lot of these larger demonstrations, and adding that intimidation factor to them,” he said.
But the Patriotic Platform faces a “fork in the road” when it comes to future protests. “The group will need to make a tactical decision because we've seen a lot of counter-terrorism powers being used against pro-Palestine demonstrators,” Dr Allchorn said.
“The police might be forced to go down that route if they continue to pursue these kind of more spontaneous tactics. If they go down the conventional protest route, that could be a dead end because Tommy Robinson is kind of ruling the roost when it comes to those.”
Whatever route they take, the upshot will likely be a feeling of apprehension among minorities.
“One of the things that I find it hard to relay to policymakers is the effect that these types of movements have on people from migrant backgrounds and also from minority religious groups,” the academic said.
So far this year, 17,281 migrants have crossed the English Channel, down by nearly 45 per cent compared with the same period in 2025.
The UK’s Labour government says this drop shows the success of its co-operative deal with France to intercept the boats before they can cross the English Channel.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) has today cited a report it produced along with the Home Office, which it says shows law enforcement activity targeting supply chains, enablers and launches, has led to a drop off in demand.
The report, which is not being made public because it draws on sensitive intelligence, says it is “highly likely that the supply chain constraints” stemming from “sustained law enforcement pressure were a key factor in reducing events and arrival numbers in the first six months of 2026”.
The squeeze on supplies was “compounded by delays in transporting small boat equipment and material as a result of the war in the Middle East”.
Among the successes the NCA is highlighting was the seizure in July of 25 inflatable boats and their engines at the port of Felixstowe. Officials say these would have been delivered to people-smuggling gangs in France.
Activity targeting people smugglers as well as the French authorities’ prevention of launches on beaches has played an important role, said the NCA.
But in response, people smugglers have been cramming more migrants on to each boat in a bid to maintain their profits. The number on one boat reached 230, the same capacity as a Boeing 737 Max-10 passenger jet.
Meanwhile, Britain's Home Office says 500 new officers are to be recruited in a £500 million ($673.8 million) crackdown on money laundering and organised crime.
Shabana Mahmood, the UK Home Secretary, said the new personnel will be “going after the criminal bosses behind organised crime and stripping them of the funds they use to fuel drug trafficking, people smuggling and other serious crime”.
The Home Office says almost £1 million has been stripped from people smugglers and immigration offenders throughout the past 12 months.
