Hampshire police commissioner seeks £800,000 for protest policing after migrant arrivals
Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones has called on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to prevent small boat landings becoming regular on the county’s coast, after protests linked to migrant arrivals cost more than £800,000 to police. She has asked the Home Office to reimburse the bill and cover future deployments, arguing that repeated demonstrations are putting significant pressure on officers and local communities.
The protests followed arrivals in Portsmouth on 6 September and Gosport later that month and on 4 October, when 149 people were brought ashore by RNLI lifeboats after travelling from Normandy. Jones says 12 people were arrested during the latest Gosport protest, including four accused of assaulting police officers and one of assaulting an emergency worker. Several people have since been sentenced for offences connected with the unrest; the article also reports claims that children of RNLI volunteers have faced bullying over their parents’ rescue work.
- Hampshire policing costs linked to protests have exceeded £800,000.
- Donna Jones wants the Home Office to reimburse the bill.
- The latest Gosport landing brought 149 people ashore from Normandy.
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Hampshire is a county on England’s south coast, where small boats carrying people from northern France have recently arrived in Portsmouth and Gosport. The RNLI, a charity that operates lifeboats, has brought some people ashore after they made the crossing.
Donna Jones is Hampshire’s elected police and crime commissioner, responsible for representing local concerns about policing and overseeing the county’s police force. The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, leads the government department responsible for immigration policy and national policing matters.
Protests have taken place in response to the arrivals, requiring police deployments and leading to arrests and criminal cases. The dispute involves how the costs of policing such demonstrations should be met, and how local authorities and national government respond to arrivals and their effects on communities.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The commissioner can argue that repeated protests linked to migrant arrivals have imposed exceptional policing costs and diverted officers from other duties, so national government should help meet the bill. Home Office funding for future deployments could also give local communities and police greater certainty, while making clear that disorder and assaults will be dealt with.
The case against
The Home Office could argue that policing public demonstrations is a core responsibility of local forces, and that reimbursing one county’s costs risks creating an open-ended precedent for similar claims elsewhere. It could also contend that the reported incidents do not, on their own, establish that small boat arrivals are becoming regular or that preventing them is a practical remedy for protest-related pressure.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Police chief demands Shabana Mahmood end small boat landings in Portsmouth and Gosport as she reveals £800,000 cost to protect town against unrest”.