Far-right posters and a protest in Gosport have highlighted deep anti-migrant sentiment in the Hampshire town, though some residents insist there is another side to life there.
Protest and posters in Gosport
On Tuesday night, hundreds of people, many of them local, gathered in Gosport after social media rumours that authorities planned to land asylum seekers in the town. Masked followers of the anti-migrant activist Daniel Thomas, who calls himself “Danny Tommo”, were cheered on. Children were seen chanting “let them drown” into a megaphone.
Alan Dale, a retired Royal Navy veteran, said the gathering had at least “sent a message”. He echoed a common local sentiment that Gosport and Britain more widely had changed, and that migrants were being put “to the front of the queue” for public services. “Is it going to be heard though? I don’t think so. It’s almost like the government is sticking its fingers in its ears and saying: ‘We are not listening to you’,” he said.
Dale admitted to feeling uncomfortable about the face coverings worn by the masked vigilantes, but insisted: “With any protest you are always going to get troublemakers.”
Far-right links and arrests
Red and white far-right posters emblazoned with the word “resistance” and slogans such as “protecting our children’s future” were plastered on lampposts around the bench where Dale sat in Gosport’s Falkland Gardens.
Six people were arrested on Tuesday night by police, including two outsiders: a 19-year-old and a 36-year-old, both from Salisbury, who were detained on suspicion of aggravated trespass.
The small boat carrying 51 people docked in Dover, Kent, at about 12.30am on Wednesday after spending 33 hours at sea. Home Office sources insisted there was no plan to land them in Gosport.
Another side to Gosport
A local man who had worked with young people in the area where the protest took place, but declined to give his name, said: “It’s a depressing situation that so many people turned up but there is another side here as well and you have people in Portsmouth who are organising gigs to raise funds for the RNLI.” He also cited the fact that Gosport’s nearby Rowner area had been allocated as much as £20m from the government’s Pride in Place initiative.
Among those gathered for a Bible study group inside Gosport’s Holy Trinity church on Wednesday morning was the retired priest Margaret Hay, who said the first thought that came to her mind was that Jesus was an immigrant too. Another participant voiced discomfort that many of those crossing the channel appeared to be men.
The group also included Tyler Palmer, a young churchgoer who watched the protests from the edge of the crowd. “We’ve always been diverse here in Gosport and it’s forgotten. Turkish sailors who fought alongside us in the second world war were housed here,” he said. “But we’re also a naval town and people are very proud. They’re reading things that scare them – whether that’s GB News or fearmongering on social media. These are everyday people, your plumbers, your plasterers, who you wouldn’t expect to be at protests.”
