A far-right activist was recorded slashing an inflatable dinghy carrying asylum seekers in the English Channel while a rescue worker was still onboard, authorities said. The incident took place on the afternoon of September 22 near the coast of Hampshire as part of an ongoing series of anti-immigration protests.
Daniel Thomas, who goes by the name Danny Tommo, livestreamed the event to approximately 100,000 viewers, showing himself stabbing a knife repeatedly into the inflatable boat as it carried migrants from France to the United Kingdom. During the confrontation, Thomas urged a rescue worker to leave the dinghy, shouting, “Get off the boat. You’ve got time to get off the boat,” before retreating. The rescue worker disembarked safely, though footage does not capture the exact moment. Thomas also declared, “This is England. This is not France any more,” as he damaged the boat.
The incident occurred amid a large gathering of hundreds of protesters in Gosport, Hampshire, who were staging a demonstration to disrupt the disembarkation of asylum seekers. The protesters were organized following Thomas’s calls on social media and included groups united under the Patriot Platform movement he leads. Police maintained a significant presence, blocking roads and managing confrontations between demonstrators and officers. Some protesters, dressed in black with covered faces, faced off quietly against police, while the crowd chanted slogans such as “Send them back.”
Border Force vessels ultimately transported the asylum seekers from Hampshire to Dover, rather than disembarking in Gosport as initially expected. Donna Jones, Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, urged the Border Force to relocate transfers to Dover to ease the local police burden and avoid further protest activity. She stated that Hampshire lacked the infrastructure to process people arriving in this manner.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) highlighted that the migrants had been at sea for up to 36 hours, one of the longest recorded Channel crossings by small boats. The RNLI warned of concerns regarding the health of those rescued and the risk of “catastrophic failure” of their dinghy. The French coastguard confirmed that approximately 60 migrants refused assistance despite facing precarious conditions at sea, insisting on continuing their journey to the UK. The RNLI assisted in transferring the migrants to a Border Force vessel after the rescue.
Charities and advocacy groups strongly condemned Thomas’s actions. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants described the knife attack as “violent and dangerous.” The anti-racism organization Stand Up to Racism noted Thomas’s prior conviction for knife crime and called the footage “disgusting.” Hampshire and Isle of Wight police are investigating the incident and had made six arrests as of the evening of September 22, on charges including assaulting an emergency worker and aggravated trespass. All individuals arrested remained in custody overnight.
The RNLI reiterated its commitment to humanitarian operations, emphasizing that its mandate to rescue anyone in distress at sea is apolitical and longstanding, stating it acts “without judgment or preference.”