Police looking at video of anti-migrant activist Daniel Thomas slashing at boat with knife - bbc.co.uk

Police are looking into a video appearing to show anti-migrant activist Daniel Thomas slashing at an inflatable boat with a knife in the English Channel.

The boat had been carrying about 50 migrants who had launched from a beach in Normandy. They were picked up by two RNLI lifeboats once they had reached the UK search and rescue area. They were then transferred to a UK Border Force vessel and taken to Dover for processing.

Daniel Thomas, known to his supporters as Danny Tommo, had been filming the transfer from a yellow speedboat while giving commentary to a live stream audience of more than 15,000 people.

The video then shows him sailing up to the boat, taking out a small knife and starting to slash at the side of the migrant boat.

There were no migrants on board, but there was a French official from the coastguard vessel Abeille Liberté.

As the Frenchman boarded the empty migrant boat mid-Channel Thomas shouted "Right, you are on English territory. This is England. This is not France any more."

Then he made a series of stabbing and slashing movements against the rubber side of the large inflatable boat.

"Get off - get off," he shouted. "You've got time to get off the boat."

It was not clear from the live stream if he did any damage to the boat.

"We just wanted to make sure that boat was not taken back to France and used again," Thomas told his followers.

Posting on X, campaign group Stand Up To Racism described the footage as "disgusting".