How anti-migrant boat protests were organised and who is behind them

Thomas has spent the last year filming himself harassing migrants on the beaches of France, and sharing the videos on social media.

In July, he announced a new venture called Patriot Platform and has been drumming up support for what he called “mass resistance”, without violence.

It describes itself as a movement by “the sons and daughters of this island” designed to “take our country back”.

According to the website, the group is “not united by hatred of others. We are united by love of country, responsibility to our families and belief in Britain’s future”.

In a video posted on Wednesday and apparently filmed with supporters in the north west of England, Thomas tells a group of men gathered on a playing field that “something is about to go down and men from all round the country will be involved in it”.

“Once we pull this off it will snowball in the entire country,” he says later in the clip, in which he also tells the group the movement is about “boxing clever” and exercising “discipline”.

“We create a violent movement now, what do you think is gonna happen? We’ll get nicked,” he says.