Anti-migrant protests in Dover and Portsmouth may look like another manifestation of a familiar phenomenon. In recent years, the UK has seen repeated demonstrations and rioting over asylum hotels, small-boat crossings and immigration. This time though, the gatherings consisted of black-clad men in balaclavas, organised by a man who calls himself a devoted Christian.

The protesters took to the streets of Dover, occupying key roundabouts and causing traffic chaos. Similar intimidation tactics were used in Portsmouth the following day. My research on the contemporary far right suggests that we should pay attention not only to what these activists believe, but how they organise and what they do.

At the centre of the latest protests is a group called Patriot Platform, a network formed in June connecting anti-migrant and “patriot” formations. This appears to be an evolution in British far-right activism: away from conventional demonstrations and towards something more mobile, networked and potentially vigilante in nature.

Anti-migrant activists monitoring Britain’s coastline are not new. Other research has documented how Dover became an important arena for far-right mobilisation around small-boat crossings from around 2020. This study described an ecosystem of political organisations, single-issue groups and influencers (often self-described “citizen journalists” and even “auditors”). They operate in a space that falls somewhere between activism, the online celebrity world and vigilantism.

One key difference with Patriot Platform, however, lies in its organisation and operational capacity. The group claims to have had 45,000 “sign-ups” since its launch. A longstanding weakness of the British far right since the decline of the British National Party has been the way in which it has splintered.

Patriot Platform is significant because it is attempting to connect disparate local “patriot” groups rather than construct a single hierarchical organisation.

This appears to be a very different and more localised movement to the 2024 UK riots in Southport and beyond. Now, a relatively small, committed set of activists travel between coastal locations, communicate privately and draw support locally wherever the next flashpoint occurs.

Christian nationalism

There is also an explicitly Christian dimension to Patriot Platform – this is not incidental. The group is a self-professed Christian “army of patriots”. Its leader Daniel Thomas (Danny Tommo) has presented the network as committed to Christian values and restoring the nation to a time when Christian values were central to the nation.

The group’s use of religious language (“Christ is king” and “Christian values”) provides a vocabulary of redemption, duty, sacrifice and the defence of a community supposedly under threat. This fits a wider pattern in the UK of an emerging Christian nationalism, where Christianity isn’t just about theology or church attendance. It is also a marker of national and civilisational identity.

Britain is imagined as fundamentally Christian. Immigration (particularly Muslim immigration) can be framed by these groups as a threat to borders and to the country’s cultural and moral order.

That does not mean that Christianity in itself explains the mobilisation, nor that the activists represent British Christians generally. Rather, Christian symbolism can reframe right-wing ideas of nationalism as a moral mission

Activists become protectors of the nation, family (another cherished institution of Patriot Platform) and inherited values, rather than simply people who oppose immigration. This broadens the movement’s appeal, opens up funding opportunities in the US and gives its political action a higher sense of purpose.

The riots following the Southport murders in 2024 demonstrated how rapidly misinformation and anti-migrant and anti-Muslim narratives could travel between social media and the street. Subsequent protests around asylum accommodation have shown how immigration can function as a focal point for wider political grievances.

This is why it’s important not to become overly focused on individual organisations. Groups can collapse, while their activists, tactics and narratives migrate elsewhere. The crucial question about Patriot Platform is not whether it will still exist in five years. It is whether its networks, tactics and ideological framing will become more broadly adopted within the UK far right.

It remains to be seen if the same activists are able to mobilise around successive flashpoints and whether national networks can continue to recruit local supporters. Another question is whether the combination of patriotism, anti-migrant politics and Christian identity will provide a more durable organising culture.

Several years ago, the intersection between anti-migrant activism, surveillance and vigilantism in Dover was already understood. Recent events may show the next stage of that process. The important question is whether parts of Britain’s far right are developing the networks and ideological identity to sustain vigilante actions into the future.