In the wake of the impromptu protest in Portsmouth on Sunday evening, which saw hundreds of Britons attempt to block illegal migrants from being brought into the country, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has urged the government to act swiftly to stop the boats or face the prospect of a “serious civil disturbance”.
In a potentially significant escalation of the migrant crisis in the English Channel, around 140 illegals crammed into a single rubber dinghy set sail from the French coast to the southern coastal city of Portsmouth. This came in contrast to nearly all illegal arrivals in recent years, which have been directed by the British Border Force to the Port of Dover.
In response, an unplanned protest was called by Patriot Platform leader and longtime ally of Tommy Robinson, Danny Tommo, a local to the area. The spur-of-the-moment blockade comprised concerned locals, as well as some of Tommo’s supporters, many of whom arrived in black block outfits and masks. This followed a similar protest staged by Patriot Platform just a day earlier in Dover.
Echoing warnings from figures such as King’s College London Professor David Betz, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage warned that the “country is now on the edge of serious civil disturbance,” adding that if the “government doesn’t get a grip, they will be responsible for the outpourings that we’re seeing on Britain’s streets.”
Mr Farage said that he understands the motivation for people protesting the migrants, saying that people are rightfully concerned over the threat posed by the mostly military-age people entering the country with little to no vetting.
“Communities are fearful up and down this country. Fearful for the safety of women and girls. I’m fearful for that, but I’m even more fearful for the threats to our national security,” he said, referencing reports of the Islamist Iranian regime attempting to smuggle Revolutionary Guards Corps agents into Britain.
However, Mr Farage doubled down on his condemnation of the men who joined the protests wearing masks and balaclavas, saying that the only solution to the crisis is through the ballot box, and that a Reform UK government would stop the boats from arriving, pointing to an agreement he signed with potential French prime minister, National Rally leader Jordan Bardella, to push back boats in the Channel.
“If we start to do that within a fortnight, they will stop coming and anybody else that comes illegally in the back of a lorry or whatever it is will immediately be detained prior to deportation,” Farge vowed.
“This is a serious situation. It’s about to get significantly worse. The government needs to act. I suspect it won’t. But remember, peaceful protest good, uniforms and masks bad. Voting is the only way we get a solution,” he maintained.
Leader of the Patriot Platform group that staged the black bloc protest in Dover on Saturday and who sparked the impromptu blockade in Portsmouth on Sunday, Danny Tommo, defended the use of masks by his supporters on Monday, and rejected Farage’s assertion that it was wrong to wear masks to political demonstrations, which the Reform boss said was “disgusting“.
Crashing an interview with Reform UK Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf, Tommo said that while Farage was a “hero” for raising the issue of the migrant crisis, it was a mistake to condemn the men who covered their faces: “The reason Patriot Platform was created was not violence; we are not looking to intimidate anyone. Let me explain to you why the men are wearing masks, as you know, and as Nigel knows, the left in this country target us massively.
“We have working-class men who are bricklayers, who are roofers, who are carpenters, who built the houses that you live in; they build the roads that you drive on; they do all of that stuff. The reason they are covering their faces is we know they are going to be targeted.”
Yusuf replied: “I can understand why working-class people, who don’t have fancy lawyers to fight back for them, they don’t have anyone to fight back for them, feel like if they go to a protest peacefully then there will be far-left forces that seek to destroy their lives. I promise you, no one understands that more than Nigel Farage, me, and Reform. But I have seen Antifa thugs turn up with their faces covered, frankly, attempt to kill people inside the Reform group.”
The Reform spokesman said that while he would not compare pro-borders demonstrators to Antifa, it was important to have consistent messaging, and that it would be difficult to demand that far-leftists do not wear masks if they were permitted on the right. While Tommo said that he understood the reasoning, he maintained that the masks used by Antifa were to cover up crimes and to intimidate, while his group was committed to non-violence.
In comments to the press, Yusuf added that he believed that Prime Minister Andy Burnham is “directly inciting disorder in British coastal communities” by continuing to “aid and abet” illegal migrant boats reaching UK shores.”
“When people come out and say enough is enough, I mean, how helpless do you think you would feel? And so I want to say it again, Andy Burnham knows what he’s doing because also what he’s trying to do is incite disorder and then use any potential disorder to tar all of the right, the millions of patriotic, right-thinking decent people who think this is absolutely absurd.”