A local uprising of residents in the English town of Gosport forced the rerouting of an illegal migrant boat from landing on their shores.
Local leaders have hailed Tuesday evening’s impromptu civil disobedience as having acted as a deterrent against illegal immigration, preventing a small boat carrying some 51 illegals from disembarking at the Hampshire town on the Western side of Portsmouth Harbour.
The boat had reportedly spent over 33 hours at sea after leaving Normandy on Monday morning and had refused rescue from the French Coast Guard after facing “precarious conditions”, as they were “determined to take all risks to reach the United Kingdom”.
While it initially appeared that the boat would be brought ashore in Gosport, news quickly spread through the town, and hundreds of local residents rose up to protest against British authorities allowing the illegals into the country.
During the protests, Hampshire Police arrested six people; however, the force said no officers were injured during the demonstration, the Portsmouth Evening News reported.
Police and protesters in Gosport, Hampshire after police closed off the access road to Haslar Marina, after British rescue boats have been sent to collect the passengers of a migrant dinghy which has spent around 30 hours at sea. Picture date: Tuesday September 22, 2026. (Photo by Trevor Adams/PA Images via Getty Images)
In a statement, the force said: “Following news that the vessel would be docking elsewhere in the country, police were met with a group of people who remained in Gosport, some of whom became hostile towards officers.
“As a result, six people were arrested for offences including careless driving, assaulting an emergency worker and aggravated trespass. They remain in custody at this time and our enquiries into these incidents continue.”
In addition to deploying a significant number of officers to the scene of the protest, police also apparently organised a major motorcade to escort the migrants once they landed, according to local Portsmouth Councillor George Madgwick of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, who shared footage of the prospective police convoy.
“This has to be seen to be believed. The money spent. This country’s broken,” Madgwick remarked. “Is the president of the USA here? Have I missed something….. oh wait no, it’s just illegal migrants being given an army to protect the coaches.”
However, authorities ultimately backed down and decided to escort the illegal migrants to the port of Dover, where they have typically been brought into Britain since the start of the Channel crisis, rather than being pushed back to France as opponents argue should be done.
Councillor Madgwick hailed it as a demonstration of the public’s power, saying: “There were so many people in attendance at Gosport and so much publicity that the Home Office have aborted the docking at Gosport of the illegal migrant boats.”
Conservative MP for Gosport, Caroline Dinenage, said in a statement: “This must now set a clear precedent. If further boats are intercepted in our part of the Channel, they should be taken straight to Dover by water rather than causing unnecessary disruption to communities around Portsmouth Harbour. Ministers have now shown that this can be done. They need to make sure it happens from the outset in future.”
She said Gosport Borough Council leader Zoe Huggins and police and crime commissioner Donna Jones also opposed the government bringing any illegal migrants ashore at Gosport.
Speaking to GB News, Reform UK councillor Paul Carter told GB News: “The majority of our local community are quite calm. Hundreds of people came out in their droves to say, no, we do not want this boat landing here in Gosport.”
The demonstration came just over two weeks after hundreds of masked men descended on a marina in nearby Portsmouth in a bid to block multiple busloads of boat migrants being brought into their community. The action, led by Patriot Platform leader Danny Tommo, ultimately resulted in the migrants being allowed in; however, police threatened to conduct mass arrests against those gathered in opposition.
While Tommo — a longtime ally of anti-grooming activist Tommy Robinson — was not present at the protests on Tuesday evening, he was filmed on Wednesday apparently attempting to slash an inflatable migrant dinghy shortly after a French coast guard official stepped on the boat, which had already been evacuated of illegals.
Hampshire Police said that they are “aware of a video circulating online relating to damage being caused to a boat in the English Channel on the afternoon of 22 September, and we are conducting enquiries into the matter.”
So far this year, around 17,500 illegals successfully crossed the English Channel from France, including over 5,000 since Prime Minister Andy Burnham took power last month. While this represents a 46 per cent decline from the previous year, the reduction has done little to ease local tensions, which observers such as Reform leader Nigel Farage have warned could lead to serious civil strife if the government continues to refuse to send the boats back to France.
In a statement, Farage’s party said: “The British people could not be any clearer — the boats must stop now. Reform UK is the only party with a real plan to end this invasion.”
Reform has signed an agreement with the poll-topping National Rally of France, committing to send all migrant boats in the English Channel back to the French coast in a bid to break the pull factor driving illegals to attempt the journey.
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