Batons and synthetic pepper spray were used to repel hundreds of masked, black-clad vigilantes in Portsmouth on Sunday, it has emerged, as the policing minister said officers had been injured as they repelled organised “aggression”.
After police contained the weekend’s second disruptive demonstration against asylum seekers travelling to the UK in small boats, it was claimed that officers in Hampshire were pushed off their motorbikes and pelted with bricks. Sarah Jones, the Home Office minister, condemned groups behind the disorder for promoting “racism and thuggery”.
Activists wearing balaclavas clashed with police in Portsmouth on Sunday evening after a dinghy reached the UK from Normandy. Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary have launched an investigation into potential assaults and criminal damage.
Daniel Thomas, a far-right agitator closely linked to Tommy Robinson, the longtime anti-Islam figure whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, claimed to have arranged the protest.
Thomas was also behind disruption in Dover on Saturday, when crowds of people dressed in black and wearing balaclavas blocked the road around the port for several hours.
In a statement to MPs, Jones said: “Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary, with the support of other neighbouring forces, used a dispersal notice to ensure public safety and officers were forced to use batons and Pava spray to maintain order in the face of some aggression.”
Spencer Wragg, the chair of the Hampshire police federation, said one of the officers injured was a rookie who had only finished training school three days earlier. “Those scenes in that area of Portsmouth weren’t protests, they weren’t protests at all, it was clear that some people were intent on disorder and venting their frustrations,” he said.
About 120 people seeking asylum were brought to shore in Hampshire after travelling to the UK on a “mega-dinghy” which had departed from the Normandy coast and was at sea for roughly 10 hours.
The landing point of the dinghy was farther west than most small boat arrivals. Officials are concerned that people smugglers are starting to target new routes across England’s south coast, with craft launched from a wider stretch of the French shoreline.
An estimated 200 protesters gathered and clashed with riot police on Sunday night, vowing to prevent migrants leaving the port. Footage showed some chanting “send them back” as police officers with shields raised tried to maintain order.
Amid concerns that police were caught unawares by the unrest in Dover on Saturday, Jones said: “Work is ongoing to establish any lessons and ensure that relevant intelligence is shared at pace across our law enforcement system.”
Speaking to MPs and peers at a closed-door meeting on Monday, the prime minister Andy Burnham said Labour’s mission must be to counter “fear with positivity and hope”.
Burnham is understood to have told the parliamentary Labour party (PLP) that Britain would never accept any form of racism in its communities and stood for a sense of fairness and justice.
“We’ve got a fantastic opportunity in our hands to change this country for the better. We go into the autumn, in really good heart, with a spring in our step,” the prime minister said.
“There’s a lot at stake and it requires us to counter fear with positivity and hope. We have a responsibility in the times that we’re living in. It’s a solemn responsibility to prevent the politics of poison seeping into our streets.
“We are here to speak to the politics of hope and of positivity.”
Labour and Lib Dem MPs called on the government to explain why police appeared to have been caught off-guard by the events in Dover and Portsmouth.
Mike Tapp, the Labour MP for Dover and a former Home Office minister, questioned why the police were not aware of plans to block the local port. “Please ensure that the intelligence picture is strong enough so that the police can respond accordingly to future incidents,” he told MPs.
The Liberal Democrat Home Office spokesperson, Max Wilkinson, asked: “How is it that far-right thugs in balaclavas were able to close Britain’s busiest port without the police receiving any prior intelligence? And how is it that then an apparently separate group with some commonalities were then able to blockade another site the next evening?”
Jones said there was “a crossover in terms of online activity” and the government would learn lessons from the disorder.
In an on-camera confrontation on Monday, Thomas, known as Danny Tommo, told the Reform UK home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, that the Patriot Platform group he led would deliver working-class votes to Reform – but expressed anger at Nigel Farage’s criticisms of Dover demonstrators for wearing balaclavas.
Thomas said: “I understand Nigel is going to be prime minister one day and I understand he has to set a standard, which will basically be that you know he can’t just come out and say, everything’s great and these guys are fantastic, but Nigel needs to be very careful with his words.”
Yusuf said he would “take that message back” and added that Thomas had articulated why he and his group had organised demonstrations. “I think it’s important we listen to people. He was making his points respectfully,” he said.
Police could impose a balaclava ban on future anti-migrant demonstrations after officers were injured, Whitehall sources said.
Under the Crime and Policing Act, Hampshire police could apply for a ban to ensure that protesters cannot cover their faces. Facebook posts claim that a demonstration is planned for Saturday by a group called Portsmouth Patriots. Hampshire police has been approached for comment.
Ministers have been criticised for failing to condemn far-right groups behind the disorder. Nick Lowles, the chief executive of Hope Not Hate, which charts far-right activity, told the BBC: “To have 300, 400 people with balaclavas marching down the streets, stopping traffic. You know, it’s not just good enough. We need to call these people out for their politics and for the type of Britain that they want to see.
“We’ve got different ways to register our protest. We do not go on the street. We do not burn people out of their houses. We do not cause trouble and threaten to fight the police.”
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight police and crime commissioner, Donna Jones, said England’s south coast was not prepared for the arrival of migrants, and ministers would have a “significant issue” if people traffickers shifted their routes farther west. She warned that places such as Portsmouth were “not set up” for the arrival of migrants.
Kent police defended the force’s action after it described the highly organised protest action in Dover as “spontaneous”. Assistant chief constable Nigel Brookes said the term was used in line with national guidance and that the action had “developed rapidly”.
Eight boats carrying 625 people arrived in the UK on Sunday after crossing the English Channel, Home Office data shows.
