// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the Patriot Platform say? "I'm standing up for my rights.

Patriot Platform is an anti-immigrant group established by far-right activist Daniel Thomas, who uses the nickname Danny Tommo, in summer 2026. Thomas founded the group after he split from Raise the Colours, having fallen out with one of its co-founders. The group has brought together a number of existing, local far-right groups under Thomas as a single leader. It came to public prominence due to its organisation of anti-immigration protests in Dover, Portsmouth and Gosport in September 2026, at which its members wore all black clothing and balaclavas. Thomas is currently being held on remand charges including criminal damage after he slashed the side of a dinghy that had been used by migrants to cross the English Channel with a knife while a French rescue worker was still on board.

Formation

Thomas founded Patriot Platform after his involvement with the Raise the Colours group ended when he fell out with its co-founder, Ryan Bridge. According to Searchlight, Thomas held a number of recruitment rallies for Patriot Platform during summer 2026. The group was launched in June or July 2026. Its website was registered in May. According to the Daily Telegraph, Thomas set up the group to "reclaim our borders, restore order and send a clear message: Britain belongs to the British". He has stated that he wants "discipline" from group members rather than "drinkers" or "violence", but an investigation by Hope Not Hate found that his hand-picked supporters included men with histories of criminality, including convictions for violence against women. The Guardian reports that "Patriot Platform is actually the moulding together of a series of local far-right groups under a single leader".

In June 2026, a boat purchased by Thomas using donations from supporters sunk in Littlehampton Harbour after developing mechanical issues. In September, it was reported that Thomas was crowdfunding to buy a replacement boat for use by Patriot Platform.

Dover and Portsmouth protests

Patriot Platform was behind an anti-immigration protest that involved several hundred men wearing black clothes and balaclavas, which were described by observers as "paramilitary gear", blocking roads in Dover on 5 September 2026. The group had reportedly "initially threatened to blockade Dover for three days". The group had reportedly "initially threatened to blockade Dover for three days". According to The i Paper, "Videos of the demonstration have drawn 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".

The following night, members of the group blocked roads in Portsmouth to try to stop newly arrived migrants being taken to a processing centre. A boat carrying around 140 migrants had arrived, having left Baie de Seine in the morning. The French authorities stated that it was unusual for a boat carrying migrants to depart from as far from Calais as Baie de Seine. The number of boat crossings over summer 2026 had dropped to its lowest level since 2019, but in response to British and French government actions to prevent crossings, smuggling gangs are reported to have changed tactics, loading more people onto a smaller number of larger boats, which have been called "mega dinghies". Prior to 6 September, there had been a period of six days in which there were no boat arrivals.

Thomas livestreamed the Portsmouth protest from the scene. On the livestream, he filmed himself and another, bare-chested man, running along a beach, shouting at emergency workers: "You know who I am, my name is Danny Tommo, you saw what I did in Dover and if you don’t stop right now I’m calling 1,000 men to come to this place." According to The National, Thomas was subsequently "widely mocked for clambering into the sea in the apparent belief that police can’t arrest people if they’re swimming". Nick Lowles of Hope Note Hate said that the protests had attracted "some of the more aggressive and more violent of the far-right activists from around the country".

A number of police officers were injured during the Portsmouth protest. The chair of Hampshire Police Federation said that officers had been pushed off of police motorbikes and had stones and bricks thrown at them. One of the injured officers had only finished his training three days earlier. A group of protestors confronted a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) crew, calling them "traitors". Two RNLI members were the subject of online doxing attempts. The RNLI lifeboat station in Portsmouth has been temporarily closed since 10 September as a result of abuse received since the protest.

Political reaction

The events in Dover with masked Patriot Platform members blocking roads were widely condemned by mainstream political parties. Jonathan Reynolds, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, said of the Dover protest: "I condemn it. Peaceful protest is an essential part of British life but that’s not dressing up in costumes like this and disrupting people’s lives." After the Portsmouth protest, the government said that people had a right to protest peacefully but that it condemned "intimidating and thuggish behaviour". The Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said that the Portsmouth protest showed that people were "genuinely angry at the government's failure to stop the boats", but also that "nothing excuses either violent or disruptive protest".

Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, called the fact that the Dover protestors were wearing balaclavas "disgusting" and called for the wearing of them in public spaces to be banned, but the party's chairman Lee Anderson, while condemning "attacks on our police", said: "If you’re going to protest then be careful, do it the right way then you have my full support because the left are just looking for an excuse to label you all as far right thugs. You're not, you are decent patriotic Brits who've had enough." The Guardian wrote that "Reform is gripped with internal friction over the activists". Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe said that his party "proudly stands with those peacefully protesting against illegal immigration in Dover". He called the group's use of face coverings "undesirable" but said that it was "perfectly fair for people living in this Orwellian age".

The day after the Portsmouth protest, Thomas interrupted Reform UK home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf, who was giving an interview to media outlets in the city. Thomas told Yusuf that Nigel Farage needed to be "careful with his words", after he had referred to people participating in the Unite the Kingdom march earlier in the year "knuckle-draggers". Yusuf told Thomas that "I just want to make that really clear, just so that we’re really clear about this, right? There is never any excuse for violence against police officers who are doing their job. They are taking orders, and that is what it is."

Criticism of police response

The fact that the Dover protest appeared planned led to criticism of the police's lack of preparedness. The Labour MP for Dover, Mike Tapp, said: "I will be looking urgently on Monday to ask questions around why we didn’t know about this, because we do tend to know when protests are coming to the area. In this instance it would appear that the police didn’t know about it and the resources were pretty thin on the ground.” Police initially called the protest "spontaneous". The BBC reports that the police "have admitted not knowing about the protest in advance, leading to accusations of a failure in intelligence-gathering".

On 10 September, the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, announced that she expected police forces to to make "full use" of powers allowing them to ban the use of face coverings at protests in future. The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary announced that it planned to use the powers in relation to a further protest planned for Portsmouth on 12 September and that anyone breaching the restriction could face arrest.

Daily Mail protest

On 9 September 2026, members of Patriot Platform led by Thomas held a protest outside the London office of the Daily Mail. Thomas demanded that the newspaper buy a new house for his mother, after he said that it had "doxxed” her by publishing the name of the town she lives in and the name of his roofing firm, which he had publicly registered to the address, saying that if this did not happen within 48 hours then he would return with a larger group of men. Thomas later appealed for donations online to help his mother move house.

Proposed Piddington action

Thomas has said that thousands of Patriot Platform members could travel to Piddington, Oxfordshire, should plans to use a former military site to house asylum seekers go ahead, in order to attempt to prevent asylum seekers being moved on to the site. The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said that Thomas was "a far-right and outright racist" who would feel "the full force of the law" should Patriot Platform commit any crimes near sites including Piddington.

Dinghy slashing and Gosport protest

On 22 September 2026, Thomas filmed himself spending the afternoon in a small boat on the English Channel, tracking two dinghies that were carrying asylum seekers. As the migrants were assisted off of one of the dinghies, Thomas approached it, shouting "Let's get rid of that boat". Thomas then slashed the side of the dinghy with a knife while a French rescue worker was still on board. Later on, the RNLI facilitated the transfer of the asylum seekers on to a Border Force vessel. On social media, Thomas called on his followers to travel to Gosport to conduct a protest when the Border Force landed the asylum seekers there. Several hundred people turned up in Gosport, but the Border Force boat landed in Dover instead. According to The Times, at the protest, "Crowds of masked protesters confronted a line of police to chants of 'let them drown' sung by a child over a megaphone".

The police made six arrests in relation to the Gosport protest, for suspected offences including assaulting an emergency worker, aggravated trespass, and careless driving. On 23 September, the police said that they were examining footage of Thomas slashing the dinghy. The following day he was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage with intent to endanger life, and alleged offences under the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990 and the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.

The day after his arrest, police announced that Thomas had been charged with criminal damage and failure to disclose the security PIN to his phone. 200 of his supporters gathered outside a police investigation centre in Basingstoke, believing that Thomas was inside. On 25 September, Thomas entered a plea of not guilty to both charges via video link to Basingstoke Magistrates' Court and was remanded in custody until a scheduled appearance at Portsmouth Crown Court on 29 September.