A far-right activist who has organised protests against migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats has been arrested after allegedly slashing an inflatable dinghy in the water.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said a 37-year-old man was detained on Wednesday evening on suspicion of criminal damage with intent to endanger life and endangering the safety of a vessel. He remained in custody on Thursday.
Video shared on social media appears to show Daniel Thomas, known as Danny Tommo, using a knife on the dinghy while shouting: “You’re in English territory”. The boat was empty of migrants but had a member of the rescue services aboard, according to the account of the incident.
British police do not name suspects until they have been charged. Thomas is a long-standing associate of far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who is also known as Tommy Robinson.
Thomas founded Patriot Platform, the group behind recent demonstrations involving masked men dressed in black who attempted to prevent migrants from reaching the UK.
Earlier in September, masked protesters blocked the port of Dover and attempted to stop migrants being brought ashore in Portsmouth.
More than 41,000 people made the dangerous Channel crossing in 2025, as successive UK governments struggled to stop the journeys across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The issue has been described as a crisis by politicians including Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, and has become a rallying point for anti-immigration activists.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s centre-left government says closer law-enforcement co-operation between Britain and France has helped cut the number of crossings in 2026 by more than 40 per cent compared with the previous year.
