San Francisco Frontiers - UK PM denounces 'politics of poison' after anti-migrant protests

The protest took place in a part of southern England that authorities fear is becoming a new route for small boat crossings.

Speaking to parliamentarians in a closed-door meeting, Burnham said the party's mission must be to counter "fear with positivity and hope", the PA news agency reported.

"We have a responsibility in the times that we're living in. It's a solemn responsibility to prevent the politics of poison seeping into our streets," he was quoted as saying.

Thousands of asylum seekers have crossed the Channel on rudimentary vessels in recent years, usually between Calais and Dover where the distance between the French and English coasts is shortest.

On Sunday, Britain's coastguard rescued a boat carrying 140 people that French authorities said had departed from Baie de Seine in Normandy, a couple of hundred kilometres southwest of Calais.

Later, some 200 demonstrators, many dressed in black and wearing face coverings, disrupted the disembarkation of the migrants in Portsmouth, Hampshire, far west of Dover.

They blocked roads while police officers equipped with riot shields formed a security cordon around buses intended to take the migrants to a processing centre, footage on social media showed.

The crowd dispersed around 4:00 am (0300 GMT) and the migrants were successfully transported, officials said.

"We condemn the intimidating and thuggish behaviour we saw in Portsmouth last night," a spokesperson for the UK interior ministry, known as the Home Office, said in a statement.

"The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy but it must never cross a line into disorder."

Sunday night's demonstration was the second significant anti-migrant disorder of the weekend after large crowds of masked men blocked access to the Port of Dover for several hours on Saturday.

Both gatherings were organized by a group called Patriot Platform, started by Daniel Thomas, also known as Danny Tommo, an associate of far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Thomas filmed and livestreamed both events on social media.

- 'Not equipped' -

Arrivals of small boats in the county of Hampshire are rare.

"Extremely concerning to see an illegal migrant crossing this far west," local Conservative lawmaker Joe Robertson wrote in a post on X.

"We need to know exactly what happened and if new routes are being used for mega-dinghies by people smugglers."

Donna Jones, police and crime commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight police, said in a statement that Portsmouth "is not equipped to receive and process people entering the country this way".

"The government needs to ensure the southern coast of Britain is secure to prevent this from happening again," she added, saying that Sunday night's scenes had "put pressure on resources, particularly policing".

A UK government official told reporters there was "no evidence" at this stage to suggest that smugglers running the crossings had changed their strategy.

Britain has been grappling with how to curb the perilous small boat journeys, which have seen tens of thousands of asylum seekers arriving annually on southeast England's coast since in recent years.

The crossings, often of people fleeing war and famine, have been seized on by the hard-right Reform UK party, which has made gains since breaking through at the 2024 general election.

The Labour government insists it is making progress tackling the issue, in part because of co-operation deals with the French government and a tightening of the asylum system.

According to Home Office data, 16,513 irregular migrants have crossed the Channel since the beginning of the year, down about 40 percent compared to the same period in 2025.

Last week, Burnham announced the deployment of 45 additional officers to French beaches to help combat an increase in the number of passengers per boat.

The vast majority of migrants to Britain arrive via legal routes, government data shows.

R.Baker--SFF