The far-right agitator and anti-migrant activist Daniel Thomas has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage with intent to endanger life after he filmed himself appearing to slash the side of a dinghy in the middle of the Channel while a rescuer was onboard.
The arrest came as the Home Office recorded 781 arrivals in 10 boats on Wednesday, the highest number for a single day so far this year. Responding to the figures, the government said it would “push further and harder” to crack down on the people organising the crossings.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary said a 37-year-old man of no fixed abode had been arrested after a boat that had an emergency responder onboard was damaged in the Channel. The man was arrested “on suspicion of destroying ships or fixed platforms or endangering their safety”.
He was also suspected of committing “criminal damage, criminal damage with intent to endanger life, and conduct endangering ships, structures or individuals”. Police said he remained in custody on Thursday.
The force had earlier said it was looking at footage livestreamed by Thomas, in which he could reportedly be seen using a knife to stab and slash an inflatable dinghy in the middle of the Channel after asylum seekers had been helped to safety but a French rescue worker had just got onboard.
Thomas’s footage appeared to show him approaching one of the dinghies, which was empty, shouting: “Let’s get rid of that boat.” After the rescue worker got onboard, Thomas shouted: “Get off the boat. You’ve got time to get off the boat.” His footage shows his boat speeding away before the rescue worker climbed back on to the larger boat.
Thomas, who goes by the name Danny Tommo, had spent the afternoon in a boat, filming himself as he tracked two dinghies carrying asylum seekers from France to the UK. The livestreamed footage was watched by more than 200,000 people.
A longtime associate of fellow far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, AKA Tommy Robinson, Thomas this summer gathered dozens of nationalist protest groups under the umbrella anti-immigration movement Patriot Platform.
The organisation was behind marches this month in Dover and Portsmouth, when masked men in black gathered and protested over immigration and asylum policy. Thomas repeatedly told his followers they should march silently, without violence, and avoid doing anything that could lead to arrests.
Thomas apparently managed to film and upload footage of his own arrest before police were able to stop him. On Wednesday night a 56-second clip was uploaded to his YouTube platform showing a police officer telling him he was being arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and “recklessly endangering someone’s life”.
Thomas said: “I understand. I knew this was coming.”
The latest Home Office figures put renewed focus on the government’s handling of small boat arrivals in the UK. A government spokesperson said: “Our progress this year in tackling small boats is indisputable, with crossings down by 42% and the lowest recorded over the summer months since 2020. But this week’s events show that while the peaks we are seeing are far below those of previous years, we need to push further and harder in order to eradicate this vile trade.”
Wednesday’s arrivals take the provisional total for Channel crossings for the year so far to 18,565. Home Office data indicates this is down 42% on this time last year (32,188) and 26% below the figure at this stage in 2024 (25,165).
This week ministers have also been concerned by two uncontrolled landings from the Channel in two days. Most small boats carrying asylum seekers to the UK are escorted to shore by rescue services or Border Force vessels, and no unescorted small boats had been recorded since 6 September 2025.
The education secretary, Lucy Powell, said: “You can’t stop everything all of the time,” after 21 people were detained when a boat evaded Border Force to reach the beach of Samphire Hoe in Dover on Wednesday. Another dinghy made an uncontrolled landing in Folkestone on Monday morning.
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has ordered an urgent review by Border Security Command, describing the failure to intercept the two boats as “not acceptable”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Powell said: “Of course, it’s a concern. That’s why the home secretary has demanded and ordered this urgent review, because this is not what we want to see. This is not acceptable.”
On Thursday a 42-year-old man was jailed after throwing a plastic bottle at a police line and swearing at officers during an anti-migrant protest in Portsmouth.
Del Somerville, of Paulsgrove, was sentenced at Portsmouth crown court to two years in prison having previously pleaded guilty to the charge of violent disorder. He is the first to be sentenced over violence that erupted after the arrival of a small boat in the Hampshire city on 6 September.
Judge Daniel Sawyer told him his sentence would act as a deterrent to others after subsequent protests in the area. Describing Somerville as a “thug”, he told the defendant: “Police officers dedicate their lives to the protection of the public regardless of their own views, the very least they can expect is that those who engage in protests treat them with respect and the courts punish those who assault them.”
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