Policing minister Sarah Jones has blamed the Conservatives for “the frustration we see in our communities today” following a weekend of anti-migrant demonstrations in Dover and Portsmouth.
The unrest in Portsmouth overnight on Sunday resulted in damaged official vehicles and injuries to several police officers following a stand-off with masked demonstrators.
This followed actions on Saturday, where black-clad, masked crowds blocked access to the Port of Dover, drawing condemnation from all political parties.
Ms Jones warned that any protesters stepping “from peaceful protest into illegality will face the full force of the law”.
She also labelled Patriot Platform, the group claiming to have organised the Dover event, as “far-right racist”.
Addressing the Commons, she said approximately 120 migrants arrived by boat near the Isle of Wight on Sunday afternoon, after which more than 200 protesters tried to block three coaches transporting the arrivals for processing.
She told MPs on Monday: “Let us never forget that the frustration we see in our communities today is a product of chaos and crisis in the years that preceded the general election of 2024.
“Since then, this Government has taken action to fix the broken system we inherited and bear down on the people smugglers.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp hit back at her, saying: “If they’re serious about fixing this and ending public anger, they need to get serious about the measures – leave the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) and deport illegal immigrants as soon as they arrive.
“Then people won’t be so angry.”
And Suella Braverman, a former Conservative home secretary, said people in her Hampshire constituency “are terrified, they are furious and they are desperate – they are not far-right racists”.
Mrs Braverman, who is now the Reform UK MP for Fareham and Waterlooville, said the Government’s response to the arrival of small boats “has been frankly pathetic”, pointing to “leaflets to illegal migrants, asking them not to rape British girls and women”.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary has started an investigation into potential assaults and criminal damage, but Ms Jones said no arrests have been made so far.
The chairman of Hampshire Police Federation, Spencer Wragg, described the scenes in Portsmouth as “merely criminal behaviour of assaults, damage and intimidation”.
He said officers “became the target for some of the protest” on Sunday, adding: “Thankfully, there are no serious injuries to officers, but the professionalism they showed in the face of provocation and immense pressure was admirable.
“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.
“If people have a point to make, and an issue they want to legitimately protest about, that is not about assaulting officers, that is not about damaging vehicles or anything like that. That is just disorder.”
Patriot Platform founder Daniel Thomas, known as Danny Tommo – an associate of right-wing activist Tommy Robinson – confronted Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf, telling him his party leader Nigel Farage needs to be “careful with his words”.
Interrupting an interview the home affairs spokesperson was conducting, Mr Thomas accused Mr Farage of calling protesters at the Unite the Kingdom rally in London earlier in the year “knuckle-draggers”.
Mr Thomas was a leader of the Portsmouth protest on Sunday.
The demonstration at Dover appeared to have come as a surprise to the authorities, with Kent Police claiming it was “spontaneous”.
Questions have been raised over whether either the Kent or Hampshire force was prepared for the disorder.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson pressed for a review of “why the police were caught off-guard”.
He said: “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?
Ms Jones replied: “It wouldn’t be appropriate for Government to comment on specific intelligence matters on these cases, but of course we are looking at all decisions that were taken, and we will learn any lessons.”
Kent Police assistant chief constable Nigel Brookes said the only criminal offence under investigation was damage to a road.
Ms Jones told MPs there has been a trend of migrants leaving France “to the western end”.
She added: “We have pushed some of that resource from the French police down the coastline, but of course, we will be monitoring all those things.”
Ms Jones continued: “Because we are making it harder for people to launch from their sort of traditional places, that people are starting to launch further west along the French coast.
“There’s no evidence to suggest that they want to particularly land anywhere other than to get to Manston (arrivals centre in Kent) and to go where they would normally go. But, of course, we will keep these things totally under review.”
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