𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The heartbroken son of a woman stabbed to death by a Channel migrant urged his grandmother and aunt to join protesters demanding an end to the small boats crisis. Sudanese asylum seeker Deng Majek stabbed mother-of-one Rhiannon Whyte 23 times in a frenzied 90-second attack after following the 27-year-old to Bescot Road railway station in Walsall in 2024.

She died in hospital three days later. No motive has been established for why Majek, who arrived in the UK on a small boat three months before he attacked her. He was jailed for 29 years in January.

Alexandra Whyte, the mother-of-one’s sister, travelled for four hours to join demonstrators on the South coast at the weekend, as anger over small boat arrivals intensified on Sunday night. About 120 migrants were brought into Portsmouth on Sunday after smugglers launched a dinghy from a beach in the Cherbourg area.

The Government today condemned the protest as ‘thuggish’ and ‘intimidating’. But Alexandra insisted the country cannot afford to wait another three years for a general election, after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the ballot box was the only way to handle growing fury over the small boats crisis.

Alexandra told the Daily Express: “My sister’s story needs to be heard. As a female, standing out there and facing 160 male migrants and saying ‘I’m not afraid you’ … It’s something my sister deserves.

“There were people there who were afraid for their children. There were a lot of women there who were afraid for their children, for themselves and even for their mothers.

“Because no one is safe.

“Rhiannon’s son knows I was there. I tucked him in as he went to bed, and I said ‘I have to go’.

“I told him we were going to try to stop the boats with the bad men on.

“He said ‘go and do it – give them the message’.

“He deserves everything that those who were there were doing”.

Ms Whyte said there was “no violence”, adding “it was the calmest place to be considering how angry people were”.

She declared that she felt safe among large groups of men, despite some of them wearing face coverings.

Rhiannon’s mother, Siobhan, who also joined the protest, declared Labour has to act now to prevent riots and civil unrest.

She told the Daily Express: “We didn’t wake up yesterday morning and think ‘we’re going to Portsmouth’.

“These immigrants should not be coming into this country.

“This is reality, this is happening. How many Rhiannons do you have to have before somebody takes note?

“They need to listen. This isn’t going to go away. France is not war-torn.

“If they are legal and they are coming here with documents, then they want to abide by our laws. But when they are coming in like this, they shouldn’t be able to stay.

“If there are crossings today, they probably won’t go to Portsmouth because of the police. But where next? Southampton, Weymouth, Brighton, we don’t know.

“I think we are done as a country if we don’t stop it. I don’t condone violence. I don’t want people going out and beating each other up and fighting the police.

“But we feel like the police are not on our side, the Government are not on our side.

“So as much as we wish for this to stop, I worry it’s not going to.”

The protests in Dover on Saturday and Portsmouth on Sunday were organised by far-Right activist Daniel Thompson, commonly known as Danny Tommo.

And he confronted Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf after Nigel Farage said it was “disgusting” that balaclava-clad men dressed all in black descended on Dover on Saturday, blocking access to the port.

Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman said: “I just want to make that really clear, just so that we’re really clear about this, right? There is never any excuse for violence against police officers who are doing their job. They are taking orders, and that is what it is.”

Mr Thomas, who founded Patriot Platform in July, said: “You have to tell Nigel … we had a million people on the streets of London in every colour, every creed, every background, every ethnicity … he called us knuckle-draggers.

“I understand Nigel is going to be prime minister one day, and I understand he has to set a standard, which will basically be that you know he can’t just come out and say everything’s great and these guys are fantastic, but Nigel needs to be very careful with his words.”

Mr Yusuf said he was at the scene to listen to people, and told Mr Thomas: “Nobody has done more to raise this issue, and taken a load of flack for it, than Nigel Farage.”

He added: “I will take that message, you have my word.”

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch insisted Prime Minister Andy Burnham must not ignore rising anger over the migrant crisis because Britain is teetering on the brink of chaos.

Mrs Badenoch declared that “thuggery” cannot stop small boat crossings, adding it “requires a serious plan and a serious deterrent”.

She told the Daily Express: “Since Labour entered government, 95 per cent of illegal immigrants crossing the Channel have been allowed to stay.

“So, it’s no wonder the small boats keep coming or that we get the scenes we saw in Dover and Portsmouth at the weekend.

“I unconditionally condemn the violence, and the police have my full support in upholding the peace.

“But the public are clearly angry about the Government’s inability to stop illegal immigration into Britain. The way to deal with that is with a serious plan and a serious deterrent, not thuggery.

“Andy Burnham is claiming the one-in-one-out deal with France is sufficient, when it’s only returned 1,700 people to the continent (a reminder: 20,000 people have crossed the Channel just this year), and handing leaflets to illegal immigrants reminding them not to rape women.

“Labour is weak on immigration. Andy Burnham just doesn’t want to get his hands dirty.”

Some 625 migrants were detected crossing the Channel on eight small boats on Sunday, taking the total this year to 17,138.

And French navy boats helped one mega-dinghy carrying 120 people reach British waters after its engine broke down shortly after leaving Cherbourg. It was eventually brought into Portsmouth – the first time this has happened.

Rescue teams admitted they were blindsided as the smugglers used an “isolated, rocky spot” in the region, which is almost 285 miles away by road from Calais.

And the boat was in “serious difficulty” within “an hour”, officials said.

This led to five French rescue vessels and two helicopters helping the 120 asylum seekers on the nearly 70-mile journey.

A rescue source said: “Jobourg is not patrolled by police, because nobody would expect a boat to leave from such an isolated, rocky spot.

“Within an hour or so the boat was in serious difficulty, and passengers on board made Mayday calls on their mobile phones.”

The engine had failed, investigators believe, meaning the dinghy was drifting dangerously about 14 miles off the coast.

A French Navy H-160 helicopter and a Dragon 50 civil security chopper joined the huge operation, with also included the five French ships.

The Abeille Liberté got closest to the stricken boat, and found “all on board packed closely together, and clearly in some distress”.

The source added: “We asked them who wanted to be rescued, and the answer was no one.

“There were 20 women and eight children among them, and they clearly caused the most concern.

“Only a few migrants were wearing life jackets, so we handed out jackets to all of them. It seemed incomprehensible that they were risking their lives without life jackets.

“A second outboard motor was made to work, so the boat could continue on its voyage to Britain.”

But their arrival into Portsmouth sparked fury, with protesters descending on the city throughout the evening.

Police used riot shields and pepper spray to force the crowds back, but demonstrators eventually got through in numbers. They then made their way inside the marina compound.

Footage showed protesters wading into the water and one man being removed from the floor after lying down behind a police van.

Daniel Thomas, who launched Patriot Platform to protest against small-boat arrivals and livestreamed Sunday’s demonstration, told his supporters to leave after police formally ordered them to leave the area.

And tensions over the Channel migrant crisis are about to get “significantly worse”, Nigel Farage has warned.

The Reform UK leader said in a video post on Monday: “Masked marches on the streets of Dover, and a huge, spontaneous protest on the streets of Portsmouth last night.

“You’d be right in thinking that this country is now on the edge of serious civil disturbance.

“I have warned that this would get out of control. I predicted an invasion, and boy, is it happening.

“[Previous governments] have failed us completely and utterly, and all they can do, all they can do, overnight, is to attack little old ladies in Portsmouth who came out of their houses to say we don’t want this, we’re scared.”

He added: “But let me please say this: people wearing masks, dressed up in a similar type uniform to a paramilitary, is not going to solve this problem.

“There is a marked difference between what happened in Dover and what happened last night in Portsmouth. The only way we’re going to solve this is through the ballot box.

“This is a serious situation. It’s about to get significantly worse.

“The Government needs to act. I suspect it won’t. But remember, peaceful protests good, uniforms and masks – bad.”

It follows a similar protest which blocked the Port of Dover on Saturday.

Hundreds of balaclava-clad men dressed all in black poured into the road to prevent any vehicle from entering or exiting the UK’s busiest port.

Mr Yusuf declared it was “thuggish and intimidating” for Labour to “impose, through state force, illegal migrants – unvetted men – into local communities without their consent without their permission.

“We know that British people including British women have been raped and murdered by people coming across the channel illegally by boat. We’ve got to take this seriously as a national security emergency.

“And I want to say this, if you continue to do this, to any human beings in the world, the response from those communities is going to be helplessness and yes, anger.”

But policing minister Sarah Jones has claimed the Conservatives are behind “the frustration we see in our communities today”, as she spoke to MPs following protests in Dover and Portsmouth.

Ms Jones told the Commons she did not want to “minimise the very valid concerns that law-abiding people have” about migration, fuelled by the work of “vile criminal gangs”.

Referring to previous Conservative governments, the Labour minister continued: “Let us never forget that the frustration we see in our communities today is a product of chaos and crisis in the years that preceded the general election of 2024.”

Earlier in her statement, Ms Jones said that on Saturday morning “around 150 individuals descended on the port of Dover, many of them wearing face coverings”.

She said “no arrests were made, and the crowd eventually dispersed some hours later”, and warned “the impact was felt by local residents and workers for whom the scenes will have been unnerving – as well as ferry passengers and motorists who faced delays as a result”.

Turning to protests in Portsmouth on Sunday, Ms Jones said: “A boat carrying approximately 120 people reached British waters near the Isle of Wight, considerably further west than the majority of small boat crossings.”

She said the RNLI acted “under the direction HM Coastguard” to meet the boat and take it into the Portsmouth area, after which “a group of more than 200 protesters arrived at the harbour, intending to block three coaches which were due to take the arrivals for processing”.