SIX ARRESTED AFTER ANTI-MIGRANT PROTEST AT GOSPORT MARINA

Hampshire Police arrested six people after hundreds of anti-migrant protesters gathered at a marina in Gosport on Tuesday evening, wrongly believing a boat carrying asylum seekers was about to arrive. The protest followed calls from campaigner Daniel Thomas, who uses the name Danny Tommo online. The asylum seekers' Border Force vessel landed at Dover early on Wednesday. Police arrested two men from Salisbury on suspicion of aggravated trespass. Four people from Gosport, two men and two women, were arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker, with one of the men also held on suspicion of careless driving.

Thomas spent Tuesday afternoon in a speedboat in the Channel, broadcasting his pursuit of the asylum seekers' vessel to more than 100,000 people online. He is facing a police inquiry after footage emerged of him using a blade to slash an inflatable dinghy in the Channel while a rescue worker remained on board, then sailing off shouting "traitors". Hampshire Police said they are conducting inquiries into that footage. The gathering was reported to be the second demonstration in Hampshire in recent days.

The arrests followed talks between Border Force unions and the Home Office over staff safety, amid what unions called aggressive tactics by activists, including attacks on Border Force vehicles and attempts to identify staff. The Home Office is reported to be planning public order powers to stop harassment of staff intercepting small boats at sea. Lucy Moreton of the Immigration Services Union said the Home Office is working with police and the Ministry of Defence to protect staff and migrants. Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the PCS union, said the union "unreservedly condemns" what she called life-threatening and criminal behaviour.