What is
Patriot Platform, the far-right group that descended on Dover and Portsmouth?
Campaigners
say anti-migrant collective, which gathers together a series of local groups,
is home to a host of violent criminals
Mon 7 Sep
2026 12.02 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/07/patriot-platform-far-right-group-dover-portsmouth
Hundreds
of masked and hooded anti-migrant activists descended on an English coastal
town and city over the weekend, blocking traffic in and out of the port of
Dover, and gathering
in Portsmouth after it emerged a boatful of people had been rescued at
sea and brought ashore there.
The
far-right group Patriot Platform seemingly managed to plan and carry out its
operations unimpeded – despite having been clear it was building up to some
form of action on social media. So what is Patriot Platform?
Where has
it come from?
Patriot
Platform is actually the moulding together of a series of local far-right
groups under a single leader.
Those
pre-existing groups all defined themselves as “patriots” – qualifying as such,
in their eyes, by hatred of people migrating to the UK from abroad – and came
mainly from the south of England, though their number also included
representatives from the north-west.
Who’s
leading them?
Its
leader is Daniel Thomas, better known as Danny Tommo, the right-hand-man of the
far-right extremist, fraudster and violent criminal Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – who
wants people to call him Tommy Robinson.
Thomas,
whose large social media following has been part of the group’s recruitment
drive, has claimed to have “handpicked” his group of activists for “quality
over quantity”, according to the campaign group Hope Not Hate (HNH), which has
been monitoring Patriot Platform.
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Thomas
has said he wants “discipline” over “the drinkers” and “the violence”. And HNH
has described Patriot Platform as a group of men portraying itself as devoted
to protecting British women and children, and to Christian values. In reality,
the organisation has said, its ranks are home to a host of violent criminals.
That
includes Thomas, who has himself spent time in prison for his part
in a kidnapping attempt. He was also part of a group
of 10 extremists banned from France in January, with French
authorities saying at the time: “Our rule of law is non-negotiable. Violent and
hate-inciting tactics have no place in our territory.”
What was
the protesters' plan?
The group
of black-clad men gathered in Dover on Saturday morning and moved to block the
A20, which leads into and out of the port. Traffic was stopped, causing delays
of up to 30 minutes and four miles of congestion, according to National
Highways.
The men
chanted “stop the boats” and “England till I die”, while the words “blood is on
your hands” were sprayed on the floor outside a facility used to process people
arriving in the UK.
Despite
the group having made clear it was planning something, the timing and details
seem to have come as a surprise to Kent police, which said it was a
“spontaneous protest” at which it made no arrests.
The local
MP, Labour’s Mike Tapp, said police appeared to have had “little advance
warning” and questioned whether intelligence had been missed. “I will be asking
why,” he said. “A clearly coordinated protest is not ‘spontaneous’ as described
by police. We can and must do better.”
The
action in Portsmouth, at which Thomas and a host of black-clad and masked men
were also seen, appeared to be more spontaneous – with the Patriot Platform
leader imploring people on a live stream to travel to Portsmouth to join the
protest.
What is
the group planning next?
Before it
even pulled off Saturday’s action, the group was already threatening more
protests. On 2 September, Thomas told his followers the activists were “going
to send a message” – adding: “And when you see it and when you feel it, I
guarantee the whole thing will change for the better. Because once the message
is sent once, imagine the sheer numbers that will be sent on the second, the
third, the fourth message.”
The group
has been clear it does not plan to just stop. Without police ramping up efforts
to counter it, politicians and campaigners have said they fear it will be back
again and again.
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