Masked men, lorries and road blocks: How anti-migrant activists are changing tactics

Around 7 a.m. on Saturday, dozens of men dressed in white climbed into the backs of lorries in the quiet Kent village of Preston‑next‑Wingham. They had arrived under cover of darkness the previous night, leaving their cars scattered throughout the village hall car park and on the recreation ground. Just after sunrise, the small convoy of lorries set off for Dover. There, the men staged an intimidating show of force beside the port, standing in disciplined, tight ranks while wearing paramilitary‑style balaclavas and blocking roads around the harbour. At least three waves of arrivals were observed, including the group that had spent the night in Preston‑next‑Wingham. They glared ominously at passing motorists and police officers, refusing to yield. Hardened anti‑immigration campaigners were employing tactics they had recently developed for the first time. The scene bore little resemblance to the street clashes that had erupted in Midlands cities during the early era of Tommy Robinson’s anti‑Muslim English Defence League. “I earnestly thought we’d been invaded by Russians,” Dover resident Robin Burkhardt told the BBC. The protest’s main organiser, Danny Thomas—known to his supporters as Danny Tommo—posted on Instagram afterwards: “This is our warning.” The demonstration represents a new development in Britain’s crowded hard‑right and far‑right landscape. Visually striking, the participants—members of a freshly formed group called Patriot Platform—chanted “Christ is King” alongside “Stop the Boats.” On Sunday, Thomas used a social‑media livestream to organise a second, more spontaneous protest of a few hundred people in his hometown of Portsmouth. Activists attempted to block coaches that had arrived to collect migrants who had landed illegally after crossing from Normandy, France. On Thursday, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood met senior police officers and urged them to make full use of their powers to stop activists wearing face coverings. “These scenes have caused disruption for people, and given that those people are dressed in white wearing balaclavas, there is a fear factor and obvious malign intent being communicated to our residents,” she said. “This makes it different from other protests, so we need to make sure we are learning lessons.” Observers note that Patriot Platform’s disruptive, eye‑catching tactics appear borrowed from environmental groups such as Just Stop Oil. At the same time, its leaders are drawing ideas and financial support from the rising “Christian nationalism” movement in the United States. The organisation says it is building a working‑class “voting bloc” to pressure political parties to shift rightward and adopt its agenda.