Two RNLI lifeboats transporting 140 migrants who had crossed the Channel were reportedly turned away from two major ports before eventually landing near Portsmouth, where a large crowd of masked demonstrators was waiting.

The arrivals at Eastney Landing on Sunday sparked a tense confrontation involving more than 500 men wearing balaclavas, during which police officers were hurt and vehicles were damaged.

Portsmouth City Council’s leader has strongly condemned the handling of the situation, arguing that the decision created “needless disruption” and “put lives at risk”.

New details suggest the crews aboard the two RNLI lifeboats had been told not to dock at either Southampton Port or Portsmouth Harbour, with warnings that legal action could follow if they entered.

An exchange heard on open marine VHF radio indicated that Southampton Vessel Traffic Service and the King’s Harbour Master Portsmouth refused the RNLI permission to access the ports or even their approaches.

They were told that failure to comply with the order could result in criminal prosecution.

The crews of the Bembridge and Yarmouth lifeboats decided to sail several miles further along the coast and dock instead at Eastney, where the confrontation later unfolded.

Large crowds blocked traffic along the road leading away from the port, with photos showing police carrying riot shields as they confronted the black-clad mob.

Hampshire Police Federation claimed two officers were pushed off motorbikes, while others had bricks thrown at them. The chaos came a day after masked anti-migrant protesters blocked traffic at the Port of Dover.

Associated British Ports (ABP) confirmed that the RNLI lifeboats carrying the migrants were told not to come to Southampton on Sunday night.

‘ABP did receive an enquiry about landing recovered migrants at the Port of Southampton,’ a spokesman said.

‘We had to decline the enquiry as the port did not have suitable reception facilities available.

‘If there had been a safety-of-life-at-sea issue where Southampton was the closest port, or if we had received a formal direction from the authorities, then we would have played a role. Neither was the case in this situation.’

The King’s Harbour Master Portsmouth has been approached for comment.

The migrant ‘mega-dinghy’ had travelled about 70 miles from the Normandy coast, becoming the first migrant boat known to have completed such a lengthy crossing. Its route was far removed from the usual transit point between Calais and Dover.

The decision to land the migrants in Portsmouth has sparked a major row, with Portsmouth City Council leader Steve Pitt accusing the Home Office of ‘poor judgment’.

He said: ‘The Government needs to take more action to prevent small boat crossings. Clearly people are not happy with the situation and we respect everyone’s right to protest, but it should be done peacefully and within the law.

‘We are pleased the coaches were eventually able to leave Portsmouth early this morning to take people outside Hampshire for processing in the normal way.

‘The council wasn’t asked about the decision to land the lifeboats in Portsmouth. This was entirely a decision taken by UK Border Force, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Home Office.

‘It was a completely unsuitable location to bring the boats ashore. This entire situation was avoidable and has brought needless disruption to our city. I would like to thank the emergency services for their professionalism under very challenging circumstances.

‘However, the Home Office has some serious questions to answer about its lack of planning, inconsistent decision-making and, ultimately, poor judgment. It put people at risk. This cannot happen again.’

Hard-Right organisation Patriot Platform – run by convicted attempted kidnapper Daniel Thomas – claimed responsibility for the demonstrations in Portsmouth and Dover. 

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has called for a ban on face coverings worn by extremists on both the left and right, describing them as a ‘menace’ designed to bully and intimidate. He insisted the ban should include all full-face coverings, including burkas.

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There are now fears more dinghies will make the long-distance sea voyage from Normandy as smugglers evolve their tactics.

A senior French interior ministry source told the Daily Mail: ‘The geographical focus of the people smugglers is definitely changing.

‘They are finding it much harder to get boats launched in the Pas-de-Calais and so are moving west to Normandy.

‘We expect far more of the mega-dinghies to appear here in the coming weeks and months.

‘The success on Sunday proved the voyage can be done.’

The Home Office confirmed 625 migrants reached Britain on Sunday, the highest daily total since July 29.

A further, as-yet-unconfirmed number, thought to be about 130, arrived in the early hours of Monday.

Occupants of the Portsmouth dinghy, including 20 women and eight ‘very young children’, refused rescue after their outboard motor broke down, according to French officials.

The 46ft mega-dinghy left an isolated beach near Jobourg, Normandy, in the ‘very early hours’ of Sunday morning, a senior search-and-rescue official said.

‘Jobourg is not patrolled by police because nobody would expect a boat to leave from such an isolated, rocky spot,’ the source said.

‘Within an hour or so, the boat was in serious difficulty and passengers on board made Mayday calls on their mobile phones.’

Its outboard motor failed, leaving the dinghy drifting dangerously 14 miles off the French coast.

‘We asked them who wanted to be rescued, and the answer was no one,’ said the source.

‘Only a few migrants were wearing life jackets, so we handed out jackets to all of them. It seemed incomprehensible that they were risking their lives without life jackets.

‘A second outboard motor was made to work, allowing the boat to continue its voyage to Britain.’

Five French rescue boats and two helicopters were involved in an operation that monitored and supported the dinghy’s 14-hour crossing.

A spokesman for the Maritime Prefecture for the English Channel and the North Sea said migrants were not transferred to rescue vessels due to concerns over the ‘structural fragility’ of their dinghy.

The crossing was later monitored by British authorities, including a Coastguard aircraft and RNLI lifeboats, before the vessel was escorted into Eastney Marina, three miles from Portsmouth’s main harbour.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We condemn the intimidating and thuggish behaviour we saw in Portsmouth last night.

‘The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy, but it must never cross the line into disorder.

‘We thank the emergency services who safely managed this situation.

‘This Government is doing the hard and necessary work of bearing down on small boat crossings, with the lowest number of arrivals between June and August since 2020.’

The RNLI helped more than 36,000 people across its lifeboat and lifeguard services last year, with crews launching more than 9,000 times to assist those in distress at sea.

RNLI lifeboat crews insist they have a duty to rescue anyone at sea, regardless of who they are.

A British nurse has broken her silence after learning that her fiancé had met another woman while on a cruise in Australia — a holiday romance saga that later went viral online and, she says, left her devastated.

Natalie Green had been eagerly counting down the days until her partner of eight years, 41-year-old Liam McAuley, returned home in August following a visit to Australia to spend time with relatives.

Just three weeks earlier, she had seen him off at the airport with a goodbye kiss. During his time away, the couple stayed in daily contact, with McAuley sharing updates from his trip Down Under — including details of a nine-day Whitsundays cruise he took with his mother.

But the mother-of-one said she was blindsided when she came across videos posted by an Australian woman, who claimed she had fallen for McAuley during a fast-moving cruise ship romance.

‘I’m hurt, angry and absolutely heartbroken to say the least,’ Ms Green wrote in a post on social media.

‘He didn’t even have the respect to come home and talk to me face to face.’

Ms Green only found out about Mr McAuley’s holiday fling after Sydney business owner Sammi, 44, started posting about her dating life on board a cruise holiday she had taken with her son Jett. 

Sammi had sworn off men for 14 years after Jett had been diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer, but when she met a handsome stranger at the ship’s nightclub she was smitten.

Dubbing him ‘Mr UK’, Sammi claimed he was the man of her dreams. She said she was overjoyed when he cancelled his flight home to spend another week with her after the ship docked. 

But unknown to her, Mr McAuley was already in a long-term relationship and told his fiancée he had been offered a job in the mines and would be staying another week.

At the same time, Sammi’s videos began going viral, with thousands of people from across the globe waiting for the next instalment on their long distance love story.

It was then that Ms Green and her sister Aimee were sent a link to a video montage featuring Mr McAuley in a series of loved up snaps with Sammi.

‘My sister is absolutely shattered into a thousand pieces, her heart is completely ripped out to see this,’ said Aimee.

She said she’d ‘never really taken’ to Mr McAuley, but added: ‘You tolerate someone for someone you love. Everyone tolerates him.

‘But my sister is the salt of the earth type and she is so kind-hearted and pure.’

The sisters began leaving comments on Sammi’s videos warning her that Mr McAuley was already engaged 

Back in Australia, Sammi read everything and immediately confronted him.

‘I woke Liam up and at first, he denied it but then he told me it was true but complicated,’ she said. ‘I told him to pack his things and go.

‘He was already leaving that day anyway so I drove him to the train station in silence. He kissed me and said, ‘I have never loved anyone as much as I loved you’ and he left.

‘My heart wanted it to work but my brain knew it couldn’t.

‘He is gone now and I have been humiliated online and people think I knew – or at least feel I should have seen the warning signs, but there weren’t any.’

Ms Green has since posted a selfie to TikTok insisting she is ready to move on. 

‘Life goes on,’ she wrote. ‘Have I been hurt, cheated and lied to? Yes. I’ve cried, I’ve raged, I’ve hit the bottom.

‘But will I let this get the better of me? Absolutely not. One day at a time but I have got this.’ 

Mr McAuley, now back in the UK, told the Daily Mail he had handled the situation badly but he still believes they can make it work.

‘Sammi knows how sorry I am for how it all ended and we both know what we feel is real,’ he said. ‘It will take some work to get back to where we were.

‘I’m also sorry for hurting [my fiancée], even if in my head it had been over for a while but the way I have been portrayed by her family and friends is downright vindictive.

‘Sammi changed my view on what happiness can be like and I have to live with the fact I ruined it. I’m not sure what the future holds but I’m along for the ride.’ 

Sammi has now said she was ready to move on in a tearful post and told followers the relationship was over.

She apologised to Ms Green and said Mr McAuley had done ‘a bad thing’ but was not ‘a bad person’.

Sammi said she was aware of the criticism she has had since going public and added: ‘I’m well aware of the things that are circulating about me.

‘But I started my page a year ago in the hope of inspiring woman who were going through what I was going through, to be able to pick up and just keep moving.’

Labour is facing fresh warnings over a potential tax revenue “shock” after another billionaire reportedly left the UK.

Chris Rokos, the hedge fund billionaire estimated to have paid around £330million to the Treasury last year, has become the latest high-profile figure linked to a growing exodus of wealthy taxpayers.

Ministers have sought to downplay the possible impact on the public finances, despite the sum being large enough to cover the salaries of about 10,000 newly qualified nurses. By comparison, the average annual income tax bill for an individual stands at just £8,510.

However, economists have cautioned that the true cost of “some very big UK taxpayers moving offshore” may only become clear once the next wave of self-assessment tax returns is submitted.

Labour has already introduced substantial tax rises since taking office in 2024, while Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey have declined to rule out further increases in next month’s Budget.

Hikes so far have included a crackdown on so-called ‘non-doms’ and inheritance tax, and adding VAT to private school fees. 

Fears have been mounting about how the Government will fund costly promises to build more council houses, overhaul social care and boost defence spending. 

Balancing the books has been made even harder as Government borrowing has been driven to a 28-year high by a bond market sell-off. 

Simon French, of Panmure Liberum, said: ‘One of the challenges with analysing UK tax data is that these high profile HNW (high net worth) departures don’t yet show up in the data. 

‘Indeed tax revenue is currently growing at almost twice the rate of NGDP so most of what we are seeing remains anecdotal. 

‘But next February could be quite the shock for fiscal headroom if the big self assessment returns (for January) come in much softer than forecast as a result of some v big UK taxpayers moving offshore in recent times.’ 

Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith said: ‘Fewer wealth creators means fewer opportunities for young people – and leaves the rest of us paying more. 

‘When you hike taxes, our best and brightest will not choose Labour’s Britain.’ 

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Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden was asked during a round of interviews this morning what he would say to Mr Rokos.  

‘I would say to him, the UK is a great country. This is a fantastic source of creativity, of innovation,’ he told Times Radio.

‘People want to live in the UK because it’s a great country. I continue to believe that it’s a great country.’

Mr Rokos, 55, donated £190million to Cambridge University earlier this year in what was described as the largest single donation to a British university in modern times.

The tycoon attended a state primary school before winning a scholarship to Eton.

He then studied maths at Pembroke College, Oxford.

Mr Rokos was paid £477million last year after a bumper year for his firm, with profits almost tripling to £940million. He owns the historic Tottenham House in Wiltshire, a 100-room Grade I-listed mansion near Marlborough.

Mr Rokos has also donated to the Conservative Party in the past.

His departure to Greece comes after the country introduced rules allowing some foreigners to pay a flat annual tax of €100,000 (£74,000) on all overseas income.

It is a major boost for Greece as it continues to rebuild its economy after a debt crisis that caused a major eurozone crisis in 2011.

A spokesman for Mr Rokos declined to comment.

James Lawson, chairman of the Adam Smith Institute, said: ‘Chris Rokos’s decision to flee Britain for Greece is just the latest manifestation of the ongoing wealth exodus. 

‘Adam Smith Institute research shows that the number of millionaires in Britain has now reached its lowest level since 2008 — a measly 442,000. 

‘As the reforms to the non-dom system take effect and taxes continue to rise, that number may well fall further.’

Rapidly retreating Arctic glaciers may be setting off a dangerous climate feedback cycle, with new research suggesting that meltwater is drawing ancient methane from rocks long buried beneath the ice.

The findings come from an analysis of 148 water samples taken from 19 glacier-fed rivers across Svalbard, the remote Norwegian archipelago located deep in the Arctic Ocean.

Scientists found that every river they tested contained methane concentrations higher than levels expected from simple exposure to the atmosphere.

In the most extreme cases, methane levels were as much as 425 times greater than normal, highlighting the scale of the hidden emissions being released through Arctic waterways.

Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas, and when it escapes from rivers into the air it adds to global warming—potentially accelerating the very glacier melt that is helping release it.

As the planet warms and glaciers melt faster, more methane will be released, leading to yet faster warming and even greater melting.

Lead author Dr Gabrielle Kleber, a researcher with the iC3 Polar Research Hub, says: ‘The amounts reported here are small compared with human–caused emissions from fossil fuels, farming and waste.

‘But they matter because they reveal a natural feedback loop that is not confined to Svalbard, and that may grow as the Arctic warms.’

Importantly, the researchers found that this methane is not being created by microbes under the ice, as has been found to be the case in Greenland.

The teamanalysed the types of carbon found in the water, revealing that many contained propane and ethane in addition to methane.

This is exactly what you would expect to find if the methane has a geological source, rather than a biological one.

Many parts of the Svalbard archipelago contain layers of old shale rock that is rich in organic carbon.

Over millions of years, heat and pressure beneath the ground can transform this carbon into methane as well as other gases like propane and ethane.

Dr Kleber says: These glaciers are mostly melting on their surfaces, but this meltwater finds its way to the bottom of the glaciers through crevasses and holes.

‘This means that it interacts with the rocks underneath, and where those rocks contain ancient gas, the water can flush methane out into rivers.’

The researchers estimate that land–terminating glaciers across Svalbard may transport roughly 182 to 368 tonnes of methane per year in meltwater.

This is particularly worrying for the Arctic because methane is an especially powerful greenhouse gas.

Over 100 years, a kilogram of methane is 21 times more effective than a kilogram of CO2 at trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere.

That is in addition to previous, much higher estimates for the amount of methane being released by groundwater springs in front of glaciers.

Using ground–penetrating radar, the researchers also mapped the ice conditions in some of the glaciers to see which factors led to the highest methane emissions.

The most methane–rich waters tended to come from glaciers resting on rich seams of shale, but the state of the glacier itself also played a major role.

Co–author Leonard Magerl, from UiT The Arctic University of Norway, says: ‘The temperature at the base of glaciers is an important piece of the puzzle.

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‘We found that the biggest methane releases happened where the right rocks and the right glacier conditions came together.’

The big concern is that this additional boost of greenhouse gases will accelerate the already rapid melting of Arctic glaciers and cause yet more methane to be released.

As glaciers retreat and thin, more meltwater may reach their beds and come into contact with fractured rock, sediment and groundwater, flushing out more methane.

If that does lead to accelerated melting in the Arctic, the resulting sea level rise could trigger severe consequences for the rest of the world.

The Greenland Ice Sheet, which sits within the Arctic Circle, contains enough fresh water to raise sea levels by 23 feet (7.4m) if it were to melt entirely.

With recent research estimating that more than 100 million people currently live below sea level, this could cause a catastrophic displacement of people from coastal regions.

However, the researchers aren’t yet totally sure whether this cycle will keep on accelerating into the future.

Some Svalbard glaciers are actually getting colder at their bases as they shrink and melt at the surface.

If a glacier becomes frozen to the bedrock, its ability to flush methane out into rivers could diminish.

Dr Kleber adds: ‘Our results show that future methane release will depend on both geology and glacier change. That makes it important to know what lies beneath the ice, not only how fast the ice is melting.’