Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has warned Britain stands “on the edge of serious civil disturbance” after Dover and Portsmouth were rocked by protests.
Mr Farage, who returned from Birmingham after Reform UK’s bumper annual conference, also called for all asylum grants to be immediately reviewed.
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The Clacton MP made the announcement just hours after police cars were damaged and officers were injured during a stand-off in Portsmouth.
In a video posted on social media, Mr Farage said: “Masked marches on the streets of Dover, and a huge, spontaneous protest on the streets of Portsmouth last night.
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“You’d be right in thinking that this country is now on the edge of serious civil disturbance.
“Ever since 2020, when I first went into the Channel, up to the present day, 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.”
More than 200 protesters then attempted to stop three coaches which were due to take the 120 small boat arrivals for processing in Portsmouth.
The Reform UK leader had been directly called out by one of the organisers of the Dover protests after Zia Yusuf arrived in Portsmouth earlier today.
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Patriot Platform founder Daniel Thomas, a friend of Tommy Robinson, warned Mr Farage needs to be “careful with his words”.
He said: “The reason people felt potentially intimidated was because of the faces covered.
“I’ve made that point very clear. The only reason they’ve done that is because no-one wants to be labelled far-right.”
Mr Farage had labelled black-clad mask-wearing activists in Dover “disgusting” after protesters caused travel disruption by blocking entry points to the Kent coast’s port.
Following protests in Dover and Portsmouth, Mr Farage has called for all asylum grants to be immediately reviewed.
He said: “We know that most of those landing on our shores are not genuine asylum seekers.
“They are military-aged men with no identification and no right to be in this country.
“Yet, our weak system continues to accept tens of thousands of bogus asylum claims every year.
“Just on Sunday, 625 illegal migrants arrived on the UK’s south coast. No doubt they will be housed at the taxpayer’s expense in communities across this country. These grants must be reviewed immediately.”
The announcement came after the Home Office admitted 42,000 people were granted refugee protection in the year to June 2026, while a whistleblower claimed only one in 100 asylum claims were genuine.
Despite fury on the south coast, Labour’s Policing Minister Sarah Jones said: “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.
“Since then, this Government has taken action to fix the broken system we inherited and bear down on the people smugglers.”
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