Charities have condemned footage of far-right activist Daniel Thomas using a blade to slash an inflatable dinghy in the Channel while a rescue worker was onboard, in a further escalation of organised anti-immigration protest. Hundreds of protesters gathered early on Tuesday evening at Gosport in Hampshire, aiming to disrupt the planned disembarkation of asylum seekers, but the Border Force vessels carrying them landed instead in Dover. Thomas, who styles himself as Danny Tommo, spent Tuesday afternoon in a small boat on the Channel, filming himself as he tracked two dinghies carrying asylum seekers from France to the UK.
As rescue workers assisted them on to rescue boats, Thomas approached one of the dinghies, shouting: “Let’s get rid of that boat.” The black inflatable dinghy was full of dozens of lifejackets, recently left by the passengers. As Thomas drew close to the vessel, a rescue worker wearing an orange hi-vis outfit and yellow helmet stepped into the boat from the larger rescue boat. In footage livestreamed to 100,000 viewers, Thomas filmed himself stabbing a knife into the inflatable dinghy several times and slashing its side.
The noise of escaping air was audible, and Thomas shouted: “This is England. This is not France any more.” Spotting that there was a rescue worker onboard, Thomas shouted: “Get off the boat. You’ve got time to get off the boat.” Thomas shouted to his colleagues: “Let’s go lads.
Let’s go” and his boat motored away before the rescue worker climbed back on to the larger boat. The stream did not show what happened to the rescue worker. His action was condemned as violent and dangerous by the refugee charity, the Joint Council for Welfare of Immigrants.
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.” Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said they were conducting inquiries into the boat-slashing incident. They said they had made six arrests for offences including assaulting an emergency worker and aggravated trespass.
All six people were in custody on Tuesday night. According to RNLI, the rescued asylum seekers had been in the water for 36 hours, which is thought to be the longest time small boats passengers have spent crossing the Channel. RNLI said that there were concerns for their deteriorating health and fears of a “catastrophic failure” of their dinghy.
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