Far-right protesters in Portsmouth confronted Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) crews on Sunday night, branding the volunteers 'traitors' for rescuing a boat carrying asylum seekers in the Channel. The crews, based on the Isle of Wight, had helped a 'mega dinghy' carrying around 120 people that was stranded in the Channel. The vessel came into UK waters from Cherbourg, near the ferry crossing for Portsmouth, rather than using the usual route from Calais into Dover, Kent.
Upon returning, the rescuers found a group of men in a boat shouting: “How do you feel bringing illegal migrants into this country?” A volunteer in a yellow life jacket replied: “I don’t know; I haven’t brought any in.” The protesters responded: “Look at these guys absolute traitors to this country. Look at the state of you.” Other footage showed people shouting abuse at an RNLI crew on their boat, with calls of 'traitors' and 'Yellow jackets, yellowbellies'. Another protester described the lifesaving crews as 'scum'.
RNLI defends its role
The RNLI defended its role, stating: “We are a voluntary lifesaving rescue service, tasked in the UK by HM Coastguard to assist anyone who is in trouble on the water. We will rescue those in danger without judgement or preference, as the RNLI has been doing for more than 200 years.”
Police have launched a hunt for the masked thugs who injured officers and damaged vehicles during the anti-migrant protests in Portsmouth. They are investigating potential assaults and criminal damage after black-clad activists attempted to block migrants being driven away overnight on Sunday. A small number of officers were injured and some vehicles damaged during the protest against the small boat crossings.
Rescued individuals praise volunteers
People whose lives were saved by the lifeboat volunteers have since praised their actions and defended the RNLI. Marian Boyd, a Conservative councillor and mayor of North East Lincolnshire, is fundraising for the charity this year after her life was saved during a yacht race. She told the Mirror: “From personal experience I was in a yachting race and caught in a storm when the RNLI came out to rescue us. So they are special to me because I was so anxious out there in the mouth of the Humber. It was freezing cold, and I have never been so glad to get back on dry land. We are up in North East Lincs, so the water is very deep and quite a few ships have gone down in the past.”
She added: “At sea in a dinghy is very dangerous, you would not want to be out there in a under those circumstances. RNLI rescuers are unpaid. They get calls at all times of the day and night. I do not like the fact that there are so many boats coming over but I would not leave them out there to die.”
Andrew Douglas, 54, a boat tour operator who has worked for more than 30 years off the North East coast in Northumberland, described attacks on the RNLI as 'crazy'. He said: “You do not want people dying. It is their job and that is what they are there to do, the job that they do is fantastic. When it comes to somebody dying, you cannot just leave them. If they went into the sea with such low water temperatures, they would not last two minutes.”
Political reaction and police response
Amanda Martin, Portsmouth North MP, praised the RNLI and emergency services. She added: “They deserve our thanks, support and respect, not threats and abuse. Everyone has the right to protest peacefully and make their views heard. But there is a very clear line between peaceful protest and disorder. RNLI crews are volunteers. They put their lives at risk to help people in danger. They are not political; they see someone in trouble at sea and help them, whatever their background. That is an important principle that must not be lost.”
In a Commons statement on the protests in Dover and Portsmouth, Policing minister Sarah Jones told MPs: “Peaceful protest is a fundamental part of our democracy and it must be defended. But so too is the right of other citizens to go about their lives without undue interference, and there can be no excuse for threatening behaviour or serious disruption. Let me therefore make clear to the House and to the country that disorder of any kind will never be tolerated. And those who cross the line from peaceful protest into illegality will face the full force of the law. This government condemns the intimidating and thuggish behaviour shown by some of the protesters this weekend.”
Hampshire Police said that violence and criminal damage have no part in peaceful protest. “There is an investigation to identify offenders responsible for any assaults to officers, criminal damage to vehicles or other criminal offences has been launched,” they added. A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesperson said: “Policing is committed to upholding and facilitating the right to lawful and peaceful protest, however we will not tolerate these rights being used to commit crime, particularly where that involves causing damage, disorder or serious disruption. Nationally, we have been supporting Kent Police and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary over the last few days in their response to recent events in their force areas.”
The stand-off came after crowds of masked, black-clad men blocked road access to the Port of Dover on Saturday. Nick Lowles, chief executive of Hope Not Hate, said there appeared to have been a failure of intelligence. He added: “To have 300, 400 people with balaclavas marching down the streets, stopping traffic. 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. This is creating a climate of fear among migrants and immigrants, fear among people of colour. I think the government needs to be far more robust in standing up against this.”
The group behind the protests, Patriot Platform, was founded by far-right campaigner Daniel Thomas in July, and he has used social media to recruit supporters. Kevin Moore, a former Det Chief Supt with Sussex Police, said: "People have got a right to protest but they should not be assaulting police officers or using fear of violence. There's legislation that says if you're going to have a demonstration you have to let the police know in advance."
A grandfather said he had to deflate his own dinghy to stop protesters taking it on Sunday night. Barry John-Williams, 69, said the protesters were “idiots” and some had offered him money to use his boat. He added: “They were offering to pay me money to take the boat and I said: ‘Look it’s staying there,’ and that’s why I deflated it. What they were going to do with it, I don’t know.”
The dinghy was met by RNLI lifeboats from the Isle of Wight when it reached UK waters, having set off from the Cherbourg area. It is thought to have made one of the longest journeys of any small boat, and landings as far west as Hampshire are rare. Officials believe it was a one-off rather than new tactics. A Home Office spokesperson said: “We condemn the intimidating and thuggish behaviour we saw in Portsmouth last night. The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy, but it must never cross a line into disorder. This Government is doing the hard and necessary work of bearing down on small boats crossings, with the lowest number of June to August arrivals since 2020.”
Joe Robertson, Tory MP for the Isle of Wight East, writing to the Home Secretary, added: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the brave lifeboat volunteers from Bembridge who were at sea for over 12 hours dealing with this very challenging situation. The RNLI is a charity established to save lives at sea and respond to boats in danger. It is not the job of the lifeboat to police UK waters. Anyone entering the UK without legal right to be here should be deported without delay by the Home Office, but when it comes to saving lives, every life matters no matter where you are from.”
It is not the first time RNLI rescuers have been targeted. In 2021, RNLI volunteers shared experiences of 'vile abuse' on the beach as they returned with people, including young children, in desperate need of medical attention, such as having beer cans thrown at them and people shouting “fuck off back to France”. Richard Quigley, along with fellow Labour MPs from the Solent region, Satvir Kaur, Amanda Martin, Stephen Morgan, and Darren Paffey thanked rescuers, adding: "This Labour Government is cracking down on the evil, criminal smuggler gangs. Summer small boat crossings have fallen to a six-year low, and we are ending the use of asylum hotels for good. But we’re not complacent. We still have an enormous job ahead of us – but it’s one this government is going to tackle head on."
The RNLI defended their crews, saying: "They handed the casualties to relevant authorities on reaching shore. Due to the large number of members of the public on scene, some of whom had entered the water, several of the lifeboats stayed afloat for some time as a precaution. Everyone at the RNLI remains focused on our core purpose of saving lives at sea."
