During a livestream broadcast on Tuesday, Thomas – the founder of the Patriot Platform anti‑migration group – can be heard shouting, “Let’s get rid of that boat,” before approaching a black inflatable dinghy that had been carrying dozens of lifejackets and slashing it repeatedly with a knife. He later told viewers, “That is one boat that won’t be used again,” and added, “This is English territory, it is not France anymore.” The video, posted on the “Danny Tommo” YouTube channel, has been viewed close to 200,000 times.
The dinghy had been shadowed by a French coastguard vessel before being assisted by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). After a rescue operation, the migrants – a group of 51 people who had spent more than 33 hours at sea after departing from near Vierville‑sur‑Mer on the Normandy coast – were transferred to British rescue boats and taken to Dover in the early hours of Wednesday. The RNLI crew, wearing high‑visibility jackets, helped board the migrants onto larger rescue vessels before Thomas’s boat pulled alongside the inflatable.
Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary confirmed it was “aware of a video circulating online relating to damage being caused to a boat in the English Channel on the afternoon of 22 September” and said it was conducting enquiries. Six people were later arrested in Gosport after an anti‑migrant protest turned hostile; charges included careless driving, assaulting an emergency worker and aggravated trespass.
Thomas, who has previously organised protests in Portsmouth and Dover and is linked to far‑right activist Tommy Robinson, has been a prominent figure in recent anti‑migration demonstrations. He used the livestream to report the location of the rescued migrants and to rally supporters, urging them to “send them back.”
The incident comes amid ongoing debate over small‑boat crossings of the Channel. UK authorities say 17,480 migrants have arrived by boat so far in 2026, a 46% drop from the same point last year, but officials continue to develop plans to manage future arrivals. The slashing of the dinghy has raised concerns about the safety of migrants and the potential for vigilante actions to interfere with rescue operations.