Official vehicles were damaged and a handful of police officers injured during a stand-off with masked anti-migration protesters in Portsmouth.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary have launched an investigation into potential assaults and criminal damage after black-clad activists attempted to block migrants being driven away from Portsmouth overnight on Sunday.
The force said in a statement on Monday afternoon that around 200 activists had left the city at around 4am.
“Violence and criminal damage have no part in peaceful protest,” the statement read.
“No arrests have been made at this time, however an investigation to identify offenders responsible for any assaults to officers, criminal damage to vehicles or other criminal offences has been launched.”
Portsmouth City Council leader Steve Pitt heavily criticised the decision to bring lifeboats carrying migrants to shore in the city, claiming it had “put people at risk” and caused “needless disruption”.
He said the Home Office has “serious questions to answer” after an “unsuitable” location was chosen to disembark the RNLI boats carrying the 140 or so migrants on Sunday.
Demonstrators blocked the road leading away from the RNLI Portsmouth Lifeboat Station at Eastney Marina, with photos showing police carrying riot shields forming a line and protecting a number of coaches that were parked up.
The landing site is on a narrow shingle bank with only one road to the city.
Coaches were able to leave in the early hours of Monday taking all of those brought ashore to a location for processing in the usual way, likely to be the Manston arrivals centre in Kent.
Footage posted to social media appeared to show protesters following the convoy of coaches along a motorway after it had left.
The video was shared with the caption: “In pursuit of migrant coaches from Portsmouth NOW!! We are heading towards DOVER.”
Mr Pitt said the council were not asked about the decision to allow the lifeboats to land in Portsmouth, which he described as a “completely unsuitable location”.
“The Government needs to take more action to prevent small boat crossings,” he said in a statement on Monday.
“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 of 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 their lack of planning, inconsistent decision-making and ultimately, poor judgment. They put people at risk. This cannot happen again.”
Meanwhile, a grandfather said he had to deflate his own dinghy to stop protesters taking it amid the scenes on Sunday night.
Barry John-Williams, 69, told the Press Association the protesters were “idiots” and some had offered him money to use his boat.
He said: “They (protesters) were offering to pay me money to take the boat and I said: ‘Look it’s staying there,’ and that’s why I deflated it. What they were going to do with it, I don’t know.
“One of the idiots, I heard him say they thought the migrants might have come in this boat,” he added, referring to his own small 2.7 metre-long dinghy.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight police and crime commissioner Donna Jones said England’s south coast is not prepared for the arrival of migrants, and ministers will have a “significant issue” if people traffickers shift their routes further west.
Ms Jones warned that places such as Portsmouth are “not set up” for the arrival of migrants.
She told the BBC’s Today programme: “We have hundreds of miles of coastline across southern England and if Dover is no longer the destination of choice, and instead there is going to be a spread across southern England, this is a significant issue for the Government.
“My concern now, as a police and crime commissioner, is that we don’t have this repeated.”
The dinghy was met by lifeboats from the Isle of Wight when it reached UK waters, having set off from the Cherbourg area.
It is thought to have made one of the longest journeys of any small boat, and landings as far west as Hampshire are rare.
But officials believe it was a one-off rather than a sign of new tactics.
A Home Office spokesperson 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 a 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 boats crossings, with the lowest number of June to August arrivals since 2020.”
The stand-off in Portsmouth came after crowds of masked, black-clad men blocked road access to the Port of Dover on Saturday, in scenes which have been condemned by politicians.
The Port of Dover rally was criticised by politicians from all parties, with questions expected to be raised on Monday over whether Kent Police were prepared for it, and there could be similar criticism of Hampshire Police.
The group behind the protests, Patriot Platform, was founded by far-right campaigner Daniel Thomas in July, and he has used social media to recruit supporters.
The demonstration in Kent brought traffic on routes to the UK’s busiest international ferry and passenger port to a halt, delaying some ferry services and blocking major roads, but there were no arrests.
Kent Police Assistant Chief Constable Nigel Brookes said the only criminal offence under investigation was damage to a road.
He said: “Saturday’s protest involving approximately 200 people developed rapidly and, based on the information available to us at the time, was treated in-line with national guidance as spontaneous.”
Mr Brookes went on: “The right to peaceful protest is an important part of our democracy and applies irrespective of the political views being expressed.
“Equally, that right is not unlimited, and if offences are committed, lawful police conditions are breached, or disruption crosses the legal threshold we will take action.
“Based on our current assessment, the only associated offence we are investigating is criminal damage to a road.”
He said the force does not monitor peaceful protesters “as a matter of course”, but said officers will attempt to contact activists to understand their future plans.
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