Anti-migration activist slashed dinghy with rescuer on board as 60 migrants reached Dover

A far-right activist attempted to sink a migrant dinghy while a lifeboat rescuer was on board, as around 60 migrants were brought to the UK after spending 33 hours in a small boat, The Times reported.

In chaotic scenes in the Channel, the migrants had to be moved from an RNLI lifeboat to a Border Force cutter in an effort to evade activists led by Daniel Thomas, who followed the rescue operation in his own boat. Thomas — the founder of the anti-migration group Patriot Platform, who was previously jailed for attempted kidnapping — appeared to have endangered the life of a rescuer by slashing the dinghy at sea after the migrants had moved off it. When a rescuer boarded the now-empty dinghy to secure it, Thomas took a knife and slashed the sides of the inflatable tube in an attempt to sink it.

The lifeboats had been sent to collect the roughly 60 passengers after the dinghy departed the Normandy coast at 9am on Monday. The French coastguard said the boat, shadowed by a French vessel, spent more than 33 hours at sea “in precarious conditions” and that those on board refused help, “determined to take all risks to reach the United Kingdom”, the Press Association reported. The French authorities described the vessel as ill-suited for the crossing and its occupants weakened after the ordeal.

The boat was expected to be brought ashore at Gosport on Tuesday, prompting hundreds of anti-migrant protesters to gather near the marina. Dame Caroline Dinenage, the Conservative MP for Gosport, said the Home Office had told her it was “increasingly likely that a small boat will need to be disembarked in the local area in the coming hours”. Police closed access roads to the marina as masked protesters chanted “send them back”, and later “let them drown”, the Press Association reported.

Before the lifeboats reached the Solent, however, a Border Force cutter met them and the migrants were transferred aboard. The cutter then sailed east along the coast to Dover — in an apparent attempt to avoid the anti-immigration protests — arriving early on Wednesday morning, where the migrants disembarked wearing orange life jackets and were passed to Border Security Command. The UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency said all arrivals would be transferred to the command, and a Government spokesperson said it “works around the clock to protect our border and will continue to detain, check and process every small boat arrival”.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said six people were arrested in Gosport on Tuesday evening after protesters “became hostile towards officers” — for offences including careless driving, assaulting an emergency worker and aggravated trespass — and remain in custody. The force said it was aware of footage circulating of a boat being damaged in the Channel and was conducting enquiries.

Officials issued an apparent warning to Thomas that all seafarers had a legal duty to render assistance at sea, adding: “Failure to comply with these obligations, or any interference with ongoing rescue operations, may be subject to legal proceedings.” Thomas, an associate of political activist Tommy Robinson who livestreamed the operation on YouTube, had led earlier protests in Portsmouth that ended in multiple arrests.

Separately, Defence minister Luke Pollard insisted on Tuesday that the UK’s borders were secure after a migrant boat reached the Kent coast without being intercepted. Five people were detained and passed to Border Security Command after the dinghy made it to shore at Folkestone on Monday — the first undetected landing for a year. “Our borders are secure, but we want to make them stronger,” Pollard told LBC.

Some 17,480 migrants have crossed the Channel by boat so far this year, including 5,011 since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister — the 2026 total is down 46 per cent on the same point last year, the Press Association reported. Departures from as far west as Normandy are rare, and this crossing is thought to be one of the longest small-boat journeys in the Channel.