Urgent need to meet new fascist threat as thugs mobilise to stop refugees on south coast

Black clad figures from the new fascist movement first mobilised in Dover

Fascist Danny “Tommo” Thomas brought hundreds of black clad thugs to the south coast town of Gosport, near Portsmouth, on Tuesday evening. The mobilisation, that aimed to turn back migrants in a small boat, is another warning for anti-racists.

The crowds included men in black balaclavas as well as children, some still in their school uniform. Chillingly, the chants of “let them drown” were led by a child on a megaphone. 

Earlier in the day, Thomas, who lives in the Portsmouth area, boarded a small motor boat and approached the inflatable vessel carrying refugees across the Channel. Another video showed him slashing the side of an inflatable dinghy with a rescue worker onboard. 

He livestreamed videos on YouTube and took photos of the migrants that were amplified by other figures on the far right.

George Madgwick, a Reform UK councillor for Hampshire County Council, where Gosport is located, shared the information.

And Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe used his X social media account to mobilise people.

“With reports of incoming migrant boats, I want to make it abundantly clear that all Restore Britain members are absolutely welcome to participate in a peaceful protest against the invasion. In fact, I very much encourage it,” wrote the far right MP.

The Border Force later intercepted the boat and diverted it to Dover, Kent. It is a distance of well over a 100 miles and may well have put the refugees in further danger.

Police blocked roads in Gosport to prevent people gathering.

But despite the boat never landing in Gosport, racists had come from Portsmouth and all over the south coast to harass the migrants. Many of them repeated claims that refugees and migrants are living lives of luxury.

A protester from Brighton in Sussex told local media, “This is a question of national identity. Everywhere you go the immigrants have more than we have.”

Thomas has organised mobilisations in both Dover and Portsmouth in recent weeks. The masked black clad men who appeared in Dover earlier in the month appeared to be well-organised.

But he has also experimented with bringing people out at short notice. 

He was clearly looking for a repeat of the events of 6 September. Up to 140 refugees were rescued by RNLI lifeboats and brought into Portsmouth and Thomas was able to summon 500 of his far right thugs to rampage through the city.

Thomas is a close associate of Nazi Tommy Robinson who is using his Patriot Platform organisation to build a fascist street force. But he is also building links with the electoral far right.  

Lowe, whose party is a right wing breakaway from Reform UK, has praised Thomas’s actions. He said, “I’m coming out, unlike some other people, in support of these patriots,” after Dover.

It underlines the need for anti-racists to organise and be prepared.

Building Stand Up To Racism networks that can bring hundreds of counter-protesters out at short notice is pressing challenge.

The whole movement has to mobilise to break the momentum and stop the growth of the new fascist street movement.