Alex Whyte, whose sister Rhiannon was murdered by an asylum seeker in October 2024, travelled four hours to join anti-migrant protests in Portsmouth, where demonstrators waded into the sea in an attempt to block a boat carrying asylum seekers. The protest, one of two major anti-migrant demonstrations in the UK that weekend, reflects growing public anger over asylum policy and comes as Whyte's family campaigns for tougher detention laws for undocumented arrivals.

More than 500 protesters gathered at Eastney Beach for over five hours, chanting "stop the boats" as 140 asylum seekers arrived on a UK Coastguard vessel before being taken by bus to a processing centre in Kent. Rhiannon Whyte, 27, was stabbed 23 times with a screwdriver by Sudanese asylum seeker Deng Majek, who was jailed for 29 years; her sister Alex said ministers had promised her the boats would stop. Riot police eventually dispersed the crowd after clashes, with some protesters later following the buses towards Kent, a day after masked demonstrators blockaded the Port of Dover.