UK home secretary presses police to rein in far-right anti-migrant protests
Following a weekend of unrest in Kent and Hampshire, UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has urged police to make fuller use of their powers against balaclava-clad far-right activists. Critics point to an apparent double standard compared with treatment of climate protesters.
UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood met with senior police officers on Thursday and urged them to make full use of their legal powers, including bans on face coverings, to curb the activity of far-right, anti-migrant groups. The call follows a weekend of disorder in Kent and Hampshire, during which officers were assaulted and port operations disrupted.
Mahmood said the sight of protesters dressed in black and wearing balaclavas creates a fear factor and signals clear malign intent, setting these demonstrations apart from other protests and requiring lessons to be learned. She pressed officers to improve intelligence gathering, ensure adequate resources are in place, and make greater use of digital evidence — including body-worn cameras, facial recognition technology, CCTV and automatic number plate recognition — to identify offenders.
Particular attention was drawn to Patriot Platform, a group led by Daniel Thomas, a convicted kidnapper, which helped organise the protests. On Saturday, demonstrators blocked roads in Dover for several hours. On Sunday, after a dinghy carrying 120 asylum seekers was rescued near the Solent, roughly 200 men dressed in black gathered in Portsmouth, blocking roads and allegedly assaulting several officers. No arrests were made at either protest.
Kent police initially said they had no advance warning of the Dover demonstration, but later acknowledged receiving warning calls on Friday evening that went unactioned. Environmental campaigners and civil liberties groups have accused authorities of a two-tier approach, arguing peaceful climate protesters face tougher enforcement than far-right agitators.
A new law that took effect in April gives UK police the power to designate mask-free zones at protests, with penalties of up to £1,000 or a month's imprisonment. Separately, the RNLI has warned its staff and volunteers not to wear the charity's branding after facing abuse from anti-migrant protesters targeted over their role in bringing small-boat migrants ashore.
