“Do you know who I am?”
This is what Daniel Thomas asked a bewildered-looking police officer after, at that point, a four-hour standoff on Eastney Beach in Portsmouth.
It was the second of two anti-migrant demonstrations claimed to have been co-ordinated by Thomas, 37, this weekend, which drew hundreds of balaclava-clad anti-migrant demonstrators, almost all of whom were men.
The first was organised in Dover and saw roads blockaded by crowds dressed in black, drawing comparisons to the “Blackshirts”, the paramilitary wing of Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party in Italy, as well as Oswald Mosely’s British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
‘No bailout’ for Jaguar Land Rover amid job cut reports
The Government is facing calls to “mitigate” thousands of job losses, but “challenging” business conditions mean manufacturers will continue to struggle.
JLR to cut as many as 4,000 jobs
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds will meet with the leadership team of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) this week after it emerged that Britain’s largest car manufacturer is set to .
The cuts are largely expected to impact office roles, with the majority of job losses affecting its UK operations, where around 34,000 staff in total are based (compared to just under 10,000 overseas employees).
Aiming to save £1.7bn
- Job losses will be spread over the coming two years, JLR said, as part of efforts to save about £1.7bn.
- There will be a voluntary redundancy programme for salaried and management teams.
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The Government’s response
We understand that this will be an uncertain and concerning time for affected workers, their families and wider communities.
Reynolds said he will aim to “mitigate any job losses” in meetings with JLR leadership. However, when asked by the BBC on Sunday whether there could be financial support to protect jobs, the Business Secretary replied: “Not if it’s to bail people out.”
Hundreds protest Portsmouth ‘mega-dinghy’ – what we know
Hundreds of protesters clashed with police in Portsmouth after migrants from a “mega-dinghy” were brought ashore by lifeboats.
Here’s what we know.
What happened?
Protesters gather
Hundreds gathered in Portsmouth on Sunday night to protest the arrival of migrants from a small boat.
What sparked it?
Around 140 migrants were brought to shore in Hampshire after travelling to the UK on a single “mega-dinghy”.
What did they do?
Crowds tried to stop the migrants being taken to an asylum processing centre in Kent.
Investigation launched
- About 200 demonstrators who gathered were on Monday, police said.
- A handful of police offers were treated for injuries at the scene, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said.
- Several police, coastguard and border force vehicles were also damaged.
- An investigation to identify offenders responsible for any officer assaults, criminal damage or other criminal offences has been launched.
‘Closest I’ve been to an insurrection’
Portsmouth resident Sue Dewey, who watched the scenes unfold from her balcony, said: “It was a very surreal night, that was the closest I’ve ever been to an insurrection.”
Asked if she is worried similar incidents will happen again, she replied: “Yes, we are worried it’s going to happen again… the ferry had to be stopped, lots of things had to be stopped because of it yesterday.
Watch: Protesters clash with police
Who is behind the protests?
Some of the demonstrators at Portsmouth were dressed in all black and wore face masks, similar to those who joined an anti-migrant protest which blocked the Port of Dover on Saturday.
Daniel Thomas, a former bodyguard for far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who has claimed credit for the Dover protest, live-streamed himself at the Portsmouth protest.
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- Treasury Chief Secretary Emma Reynolds called the protestors’ behaviour in Portsmouth and Dover “thuggish and intimidating”.
- Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “This is a serious situation, it’s about to get significantly worse.
- He added: “The government needs to act, I suspect it won’t. But remember, peaceful protests good, uniforms and masks bad.”
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‘Significant issue’ to come?
- In the wake of the protests, police warned that ministers will have a “significant issue” if people traffickers shift their routes further west of Dover.
- Places like Portsmouth along the hundreds of miles of England’s south coast are “not set up” for the arrival of migrants, Hampshire and Isle of Wight police and crime commissioner Donna Jones said.
- “My concern, as a police and crime commissioner, is that we don’t have this repeated,” she added.
Why Reform are fighting to replace Farage
The political “mood board” at the Reform UK conference over the weekend ranged from gloomiest black to the teal-suited larkiness of Nigel Farage. Yet the UK’s biggest political figure laced his gutsy “I will survive” message with a bleaker one about his family wishing he would quit frontline politics.
What challenges is Farage facing?
The Reform leader has faced heavy scrutiny for an undisclosed £5m “personal gift” he received in 2024.
Farage’s senior adviser, George Cottrell, is a convicted felon.
Now, the party is under the lens again after a documentary appeared to show Reform officials discussing donations from foreign financiers.
Challenges within Reform
- 1 – Farage says his family “begged” him to quit politics following the murder of Reform member Ann Widdecombe.
- 2Lack of professionalism – Farage spoke of Reform’s lack of professionalism after the sting and admitted he “wasn’t listening” carefully.
- 3Party infighting – Reform’s home affairs spokesman, Zia Yusuf, is frequently at odds with treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick on issues like the details of how migrant deportations would work.
Reform’s future
The most likely outcome is that Farage, still the stardust of Reform, however tainted by the slew of funding scandals, will be the candidate at the next election in a do-or-die moment.
Even so, senior Reform figures can, however, calculate odds – and whether it is Tice, whose friends describe him as “always on standby” if a new leader is needed, Jenrick, whose old Tory frenemies joke he wakes up every day with the mantra “I will become leader…” or Yusuf, the man whose diehard views could pave the way to a rapprochement with Restore Britain, this party is in search mode for what follows the Nigel era.
Go deeper on this topic
Farage rivals begin to circle after Reform’s nightmare week
The i Paper
For now, Farage, who was given a hero’s welcome by activists at this year’s annual conference, remains firmly in control. But the man long viewed as politically untouchable is looking more vulnerable as the vultures begin to circle.
Watch more from The i Paper
What happened?
In an interview with , Moshiri said she has been diagnosed with an incurable type of blood cancer.
What is polycythaemia vera (PV)
PV thickens the blood by causing bone marrow to continuously produce red blood cells.
What are the risks?
This increases the risk of blood clots, which can cause stroke, heart attack or deep vein thrombosis.
The symptoms
Symptoms can include headaches, confusion, dizziness and blurred vision.
What treatment did she receive?
Her treatment involved a procedure called a , where almost a pint of blood is removed through a vein about twice a month to reduce the red blood cell concentration.
Immunotherapy treatment reduced the frequency of Moshiri’s venesections but initially came with “horrendous” side effects including insomnia, headaches and itching.
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Working through treatment
I was working 14-hour days, constantly on air, constantly having to think on my feet
Moshiri worked throughout her treatment, including leading the BBC’s coverage of the death of Pope Francis from Rome.
She said that although “adjusting to a different life” is challenging, a future “punctuated by hospital appointments and loads of medication” to deal with the disease is better than the alternative.
How UK’s first ‘super-university’ can tackle Neets crisis
The head of the UK’s first “super-university” has said that merging two universities can help reduce the number of people not in employment, education or training (Neet).
A new ‘super-university’
What is it?
The newly formed London and South East University Group (Lase) is now the third largest university in the UK.
How big is it?
It contains over 50,000 students across four campuses in London, Medway and Kent.
Which universities merged?
The universities of Kent and Greenwich legally merged to form Lase last month.
What is the Neets crisis?
- 1In April to June, an estimated 981,000 people aged 16-24 in the UK were classed as Neets.
- 2This represented a fall of 30,000 compared with the first quarter of the year.
- 3However, the figure is still 30,000 higher than a year ago, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The role of ‘super-unis’
It’s a real opportunity for us address the very people that the Government’s worried about
Lase chief executive Professor Jane Harrington said the merger will help the universities deal with growing operational costs and provide more accessible learning pathways to better address the needs of the regions in a way they could not on their own.
How will Lase work?
- Kent and Greenwich universities will still operate as distinct academic entities within the group.
- They retain their current names and students still apply to and graduate from the institution they choose.
- The group will now be able to offer subjects that they could not before when they were separate entities.
- Students will also be able to use libraries and access wellbeing services across campuses.
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What strain are universities facing?
Higher education providers in the UK have been facing increasing financial pressures, with MPs on the Education Committee warning earlier this year that there is a “real risk” a university in England could close due to insolvency for the first time.
The Office for Students told the committee it feared 24 providers were at risk of becoming insolvent and closing in the 12 months from November last year.
More ‘super-universities’ to come?
Lase is writing up a “blueprint” for the Department for Education to work as a “model” for a group structure which other universities would be able to use.
In May, King’s College London and Bedford-based Cranfield University announced plans to merge in August 2027.
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Watch more from The i Paper
EES checks resume – three ways to avoid border delays
A loophole allowing countries to pause the EU’s new border checks has ended, sparking concern that the travel chaos reported earlier in the summer may return.
EES border checks set to resume
EU border checks are set to start again in full force from Monday, 7 September, as member states’ rights to waive Entry/Exit System (EES) checks during times of maximum stress comes to an end.
While EES is unavoidable, and there is no way to skip the queue entirely, there are some ways to alleviate the stress of border check delays.
What is the EES?
- EES requires British passport holders and other third-country nationals to register biometric data when entering or exiting the Schengen area.
- Applying to 29 countries across Europe, excluding Ireland and Cyprus, the system caused has widespread delays since its introduction in April.
- Until now, the registration could be temporarily suspended by border officials when queues were too long to manage.
- But despite objections from some member states, this loophole has now expired, leaving holidaymakers facing the possibility of more significant delays.
How can you avoid delays
- 1Travel outside peak times – even the busiest airports, like Palma and Lisbon, were quieter later in the summer.
- 2Skip duty free – going straight to the border control desk will allow you to see how busy it is.
- 3Pre-register for Sweden and Portugal – currently applying only to Sweden and Portugal, the Travel to Europe app allows users to pre-register, reducing the information needed at border control to just fingerprint scans.
Go to passport control ASAP
A spokesperson for Abta, a UK travel agent trade association, recommended passengers go to passport control as soon as possible after getting through security.
It follows reports earlier this summer of long delays and some flights setting off while several passengers were still in the long border control queues.
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The crowd’s shouts of “stop the boats” resulted in disruption to the ferry service and people’s holidays, with no small boat arrivals to the UK that day.
The second was spontaneous, triggered by Thomas receiving a tip off that migrants rescued from the Channel were en route to his home town of Portsmouth. He began to live stream around 8.30pm once he reached a road block where crowds were attempting to stop migrants being processed.
During his almost 4.5 hour long stream, Thomas continued to encourage what police say was a group of around 200 people to protest. The protesters blocked roads for hours and had vowed to stay all night to prevent the new arrivals from being taken to Manston, outside Ramsgate in Kent, where small boat arrivals are processed.
The demonstration ended about 3am, when police obtained a dispersal order and threatened arrests.
These two events have catapulted Thomas into the mainstream attention, but The i Paper has been tracking his activity over the last 12 months, since first infiltrating a flag-raising group in Birmingham, some 160 miles from his home. Thomas helped amplify the activities of the Raise the Colours group before a spat over power and money saw him turfed out.
Who is Danny “Tommo” Thomas?
Thomas goes by “Tommo”. He smokes “fags”, talks about “the lads” and claims to speaks on behalf of “the working class”. According to the anti-racism group Hope Not Hate, Thomas attended a fee paying private school in Hampshire.
He grew up on Hayling Island, and spent most of his life in Portsmouth. In 2016, aged 27, he was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to attempting to kidnap a man at knifepoint in a case of mistaken identity.
He has worked as a bricklayer, a sales and marketing manager, and in web design, according to reports. states he was a tank driver with the King’s Royal Hussars before he was medically discharged before seeing active service.
In a YouTube video in April this year, Thomas claimed he was first introduced to hate influencer and former EDL leader Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, after his “father and mother bought one of his books”.
He described attending a protest in Downing Street after Robinson was imprisoned for contempt of court in 2019.
“I took a loudspeaker. I started talking about the the injustice that had happened to Tommy. I started talking about, you know, if this can happen to him, it can happen to any of us. We need to stand up to this. And people listened,” he said.
He would go on to become a close associate of the anti-migrant activist and was widely reported to have worked as Robinson’s bodyguard. The pair enjoyed a sunny holiday together in Tenerife in July 2025.
As England flags and Union Jacks began to be raised across the country last summer in response to the small boats crisis. Thomas linked up with the Birmingham-based Raise the Colours group, emerging as co-leader with Ryan Bridge.
The pair grew their social media followings, filming themselves travelling to the northern French coast where they filmed themselves slashing abandoned dinghies and ultimately getting banned from France by French authorities.
Bridge and Thomas also hatched a plan to take UK police by surprise and storm the Channel with boats under the banner of “Operation Overlord”.
They were overheard loudly planning the mission – which never came to fruition – over a pub lunch, unlike the real “Operation Overlord” – the codename for the Allies’ invasion of occupied Europe during the Second World War – which was considered a complete success and was planned in absolute secrecy.
Thomas launches ‘Patriot Platform’
Cracks started to appear after Thomas and Bridge were banned from France alongside ten others.
The pair turned on each other in a public spat that divided their online supporters and saw vague allegations of misuse of donations, among other criticisms.
Thomas continued to film anti-migrant social media videos in his home but soon found a new group fixated on the small boat crisis. With their support, Thomas founded his latest venture: Patriot Platform.
Thomas refers to himself as the “founder” of the group and recorded himself preparing to launch this new movement, including flying to Belfast in the wake of the violent riots that took place after a Sudanese migrant was charged with attempted murder.
“What I’ve witnessed in Belfast has given me the inspiration to realise that when everyone gets involved who’s committed, a change can be made,” he said in one post. “We are going to produce a patriotic army of thousands and thousands of English and British men that are done with protesting, done with walking down roads, and want to make a difference.”
Thomas has not been quiet about his plans, including a stated intention to put “50 boats” in the English Channel and lock down the Port of Dover to stop migrants from entering the UK.
It is not clear if he attended the Dover march on Saturday, as he is understood to be banned from the area and is subject to an on-going court case with police.
But he was happy to be seen in Portsmouth, where he live streamed himself climbing over barbed wire fences to access prohibited areas and then stood knee deep in water while telling police he would “drown himself” if they touched him.
He ranted about crime linked to migrants in the UK, while breaking off to joke with the men who joined him and filmed one of them urinating where they stood in the sea. At one point, he explained his tactics to a police officer were linked to the plot of the movie “300”, in which Spartan warriors fight a massive invading Persian army by funnelling them into a small space.
While his YouTube stream was monetised, as is his X account, he makes a show of asking his supporters not to donate to him – although many do anyway.
One YouTube viewer sent him £10, and wrote: “Thanks Danny & Patriots. God bless you lad. Hero. Not even Tommy [Robinson] would do this.”
But Thomas’ sway is – for now – limited. His repeated pleas for boats to come and help rescue him and his friends seemingly surrounded by officers on the Portsmouth beach fell almost entirely on deaf ears until, just as they were about to give up, a lone woman on a single-person kayak arrived.