Hundreds of anti-migrant protesters clashed with police in Portsmouth on Sunday after around 140 asylum seekers were rescued from a dinghy off the Hampshire coast and brought ashore. The demonstration, thought to have been led by Daniel Thomas, an associate of Tommy Robinson whose Patriot Platform group had staged a similar protest at Dover earlier the same weekend, saw crowds attempt to blockade the port and stop migrants being taken to an immigration centre. The episode highlights the growing scale and organisation of anti-migrant protests around Channel crossings, as well as the pressure such incidents place on policing and local communities.

An estimated 500 protesters gathered near Eastney beach, chanting "stop the boats" and "enough is enough", with some entering the sea and one reportedly delivering supplies to protesters by canoe; police shut down the surrounding area but made no arrests. The dinghy had made an unusually long crossing, departing from the Bay of the Seine roughly 170 miles from the usual Calais launch point, and was escorted for around ten hours by French rescue vessels who deemed it too dangerous to intercept at sea. HM Coastguard deployed lifeboats, a helicopter and a plane to bring the migrants ashore safely, where they were met by buses, while Reform UK figures including Nigel Farage seized on the crossing to criticise government policy. The incident came in the same week that Prime Minister Andy Burnham and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed measures to reduce small boat crossings.