Right-wing activist Danny Tommo was arrested last night after allegedly filming himself cutting into the side of a dinghy while a rescue worker was still aboard.
The 37-year-old, whose real name is Daniel Thomas, was detained at a BP petrol station on suspicion of destroying ships or fixed platforms, or endangering their safety.
He was also arrested on suspicion of criminal damage, criminal damage with intent to endanger life, and conduct endangering ships, structures or individuals.
Footage shared by Tommo on YouTube and by his associate Tommy Robinson on X appeared to show the activist asking to “say goodbye to my kids” as officers approached.
An officer is then heard telling Tommo to “step out of the car” and explaining that he was under arrest. A woman off-camera can be heard saying: “The cameras are on, let go of the phone.”
The arrest followed an incident in which Tommo allegedly shouted “traitors” before using a knife to cut into a vessel that people smugglers had used to transport migrants across the Channel.
Video posted to YouTube appeared to show Tommo slashing and stabbing the dinghy after a crew member boarded it on Tuesday, reportedly to return the vessel to France.
Later that day, hundreds of activists gathered in Gosport after Tommo filmed himself heading out to sea in an attempt to intercept a dinghy carrying dozens of migrants.
Police arrested Tommo last night. At around 10.30pm, he and Robinson each posted a 55-second video of the detention. The footage has since been viewed approximately 350,000 times.
Footage appears to show Danny Tommo being detained at an undisclosed BP petrol station last night
An officer tells Danny Tommo that he is under arrest
The clip opens with Tommo, who is off camera, saying: “Yeah okay, okay, if I could just speak to my kids quick, I’ll try and say goodbye to my kids before.”
An officer replies: “Step out of the car please sir, okay? At this moment in time we have information to suggest that you were involved in criminal damage.”
Tommo responds: “Yep, yep, can I just… give me my phone. I want my phone to be on, please.” An unidentified woman then says: “The cameras are on, let go of the phone.”
The officer continues: “At this point in time, you are under arrest – you do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence…” Tommo replies: “I understand.”
The officer adds: “The information that I’ve been given is that you’ve been involved in criminal damage that has recklessly endangered someone’s life, okay?”
Tommo interrupts: “Can I just… yeah, I understand that…” The officer then says: “I will get the full information for you in terms of times and date and everything…”
A spokesperson for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said: “A man has been arrested after a boat, which had an emergency responder on board, was damaged in the English Channel. We received a report of the incident on Tuesday evening.
“Last night, a 37-year-old man, of no fixed abode, was arrested on suspicion of destroying ships or fixed platforms or endangering their safety under Section 11 of the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990; criminal damage; criminal damage with intent to endanger life; and conduct endangering ships, structures or individuals under Section 58 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995. He remains in custody at this time.”
If charged and convicted, the alleged offences carry a range of maximum penalties, including life imprisonment for destroying ships or fixed platforms or endangering their safety.
In an update on X this morning, Robinson said: ‘Danny Tommo is currently sitting in the cells and facing serious charges. He needs our help, he needs your help. Danny rang me when the police were following him, saying ‘what do I do, what am I going to do?’
‘I know, because I’ve been in this situation, he’ll be scared, he’ll be worried, he’s going to be fearful, he’s going to be panicking about his kids and his missus, the mother of his kids.
‘He’s going to be panicking about his family. He’s going to be panicking about the time he’s away, because Danny is their sole provider. So there’s lots of things going on here.’
Robinson said he told Tommo on the phone that he needed help from Canadian political activist Ezra Levant, who has previously supported his own legal battles.
The activist, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, added that he phoned Levant last night, who confirmed that he will help fund legal representation for Tommo.
Robinson also said: ‘Danny didn’t stab that boat for himself. It’s for every one of us. And he might have done it impulsively, it might have been a mistake what he’s done, but he’s been driven to that.
‘All these men are being driven to it by failures of government, by the mess they’ve created in our country.’
Danny Tommo could be seen in footage on YouTube slashing and stabbing the dinghy after a crew member boarded to apparently take the vessel back to France on Tuesday
Tommo slices through one side of the empty dinghy seconds before a rescuer stepped on
The French rescue worker did not react after the activist slashed the dinghy with a knife
Separately, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said last night that three people were charged after they gathered at the marina where they thought the boat’s passengers were due to arrive.
Six people were arrested by officers during the evening, the force said.
Shannon Dodds, 32, of Gosport, has been charged with two counts of assault by beating of an emergency worker. She has been remanded in custody to appear at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court today.
Sally Pearson, 31, also of Gosport, has been charged with assault by beating of an emergency worker and a racially aggravated public order offence. She has also been remanded in custody to appear at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court today.
Toby Matthews, 33, from Gosport, has been charged with common assault of an emergency worker. He was bailed to appear at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court on November 9.
A 19-year-old man and a 36-year-old man from Salisbury, who were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass, have been bailed with conditions until December 22 while inquiries continue.
A 67-year-old man from Gosport was handed a Fixed Penalty Notice for driving without due care and attention.
He was also arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker and has been bailed with conditions until December 22 while inquiries continue, the force added.
Some of the protesters in Gosport wore black clothing and face coverings, and chanted ‘send them back’, wrongly assuming the boat would be guided to the Hampshire coast.
In fact, it docked in Dover, Kent, at around 12.30am yesterday after 51 migrants on board reportedly refused help from a French ship and spent 33 hours at sea.
In a video published on X yesterday morning, Tommo branded the latest migrant arrivals a ‘sad day for the country’ but argued that pressure from protesters ‘worked in some respects’ because it stopped arrivals coming into Gosport.
The migrant dinghy left the Normandy coast on Monday and was shadowed by a French coastguard vessel, with authorities declaring the occupants had refused help as they were ‘determined to take all risks to reach the United Kingdom’.
British rescue boats were sent to collect the passengers on Tuesday, and the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency said they would be transferred to Border Security Command.
A Government spokesman said: ‘The Border Security Command works around the clock to protect our border and will continue to detain, check and process every small boat arrival.’
It had been expected that the migrants would be taken to Gosport, with local MP Dame Caroline Dinenage saying the Home Office had told her it was ‘increasingly likely that a small boat will need to be disembarked in the local area in the coming hours’.
Police officers in Gosport, Hampshire, on Tuesday night after hundreds of activists gathered
Migrants heading to the UK yesterday morning in a dinghy from Hardelot in northern France
But the vessel carrying the migrants headed east, later arriving in Dover where migrants were seen disembarking wearing orange life jackets and carrying personal belongings.
Around a dozen protesters were spotted in the area, with local police having blocked off a nearby road.
Routes used by small-boat people smugglers appear to be changing, and UK authorities are understood to have plans to deal with small-boat arrivals further west along the coast than Kent.
Earlier this month, a dinghy was met by lifeboats from the Isle of Wight having set off from the Cherbourg area, triggering protests in Portsmouth. It is thought to have made one of the longest journeys of any small boat in the Channel.
Similarly, departures from as far west in France as Normandy are rare.
Two other migrant boats have also managed to land undetected in the UK on Monday and Tuesday this week, the first time in a year that there have been unescorted landings and the only time since the start of 2023.
The thousands of migrants crossing the Channel are usually brought to shore by Border Security Command or RNLI boats.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who has ordered an urgent review by the Border Security Command, said the failure to intercept the two boats was ‘not acceptable’.
A Home Office spokesman said 21 people who landed on Tuesday had been detained.
Education Secretary Lucy Powell said today that not every migrant boat can be intercepted.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Powell branded the situation ‘not acceptable’ but insisted there was an ‘improving picture’.
Asked if the boats reaching the UK was embarrassing, the Cabinet minister responded: ‘[You] can’t stop everything all of the time.
‘Of course, it’s a concern. That’s why the Home Secretary has demanded and ordered this urgent review because this is not what we want to see. This is not acceptable.
‘But the overall picture is an improving picture. It is hard, difficult work that requires constant, constant effort by our border forces, our security services, police, our partnerships with France and other countries.
‘This is a mammoth and huge task, which is now starting to reap some dividends. But of course, you know where there are still issues arising, we must absolutely tackle them.’
In a later interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Ms Powell claimed her earlier comments to the BBC had been taken ‘out of context’.
Asked why she had said you ‘can’t stop everything all the time,’ she responded: ‘Clearly, we haven’t on this occasion, but they are on the way down – significantly reduced – and obviously it’s our intention, it’s our aim, to stop these crossings, and that requires a huge range of actions which we are taking from stopping things at source, from acquiring boats, from taking steps that we’re taking with the French authorities to stop people making the crossings on the first place.’
Asked if she stood by her earlier comments, she added: ‘I think you’re just taking that completely out of context.
‘We are clamping down on small boat crossings every single day… we are sucking the oxygen out of it, we are taking steps, and there are many, many steps. It’s not an easy thing to do to just turn on a switch, turn off a switch overnight. We have to constantly evolve.’
French police are also investigating whether the death of a man found on a beach in northern France yesterday is linked to a Channel crossing.
Some 17,480 migrants have arrived after crossing the Channel by boat so far this year, including 5,011 since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister.
The total so far for 2026 is down 46 per cent on the same point last year.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Labour have admitted they will never stop the boats. Keir Starmer’s pledge to ‘smash the gangs’ was always a farce, and open-borders Burnham has learnt absolutely nothing from his predecessor.
‘The only way to stop the crossings is to deport all illegal immigrants on arrival, and only the Conservatives have a plan to do that.’