Nigel Farage has warned Britain is standing “on the edge of serious civil disturbance” after a weekend of anti-migrant protests erupted across the south coast.
The Reform UK leader issued the stark warning after masked demonstrators marched in Dover and police officers were injured during an overnight stand-off in Portsmouth following the arrival of around 140 migrants.
Official vehicles were damaged and several officers required treatment after black-clad activists attempted to block migrants from being driven away for processing.
The scenes prompted Mr Farage to warn that years of government failure to stop small boat crossings were pushing Britain towards a potentially dangerous breaking point.
In a video posted on social media, he said: “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.
“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.”
Mr Farage accused successive governments of allowing the crisis to spiral out of control while failing to understand the anger now gripping communities.
“[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.”
But in a significant intervention, Mr Farage also distanced himself from masked activists who had appeared at some of the demonstrations.
He warned that adopting uniforms and concealing identities risked making an already volatile situation worse, Farage added: “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.”
His comments came after an extraordinary 48 hours in which protests over illegal migration spread beyond the traditional flashpoint of Dover. Portsmouth became the latest symbol of Britain’s deepening border crisis after a packed “mega-dinghy” carrying around 140 people arrived on the Hampshire coast following an unusually long journey from northern France.
The arrival triggered a spontaneous protest that continued through much of the night. Roads were blocked as demonstrators attempted to prevent coaches from taking the migrants away from the landing site. Police imposed a dispersal order in the early hours after a prolonged stand-off.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary later confirmed that several police officers had been injured and a number of police, Coastguard and Border Force vehicles damaged. An investigation is now under way to identify those responsible for assaults and criminal damage.
Mr Farage warned that the situation was unlikely to improve without decisive action from ministers.
“This is a serious situation, it’s about to get significantly worse,” he said.
“The Government needs to act, I suspect it won’t.”
He ended with an appeal for those angry about illegal migration to reject violence and intimidation.
“But remember, peaceful protests good, uniforms and masks bad.”
The intervention places Mr Farage at the centre of an increasingly volatile national debate. His warning of potential civil disturbance will alarm ministers already facing mounting pressure over the spread of small boat arrivals beyond Kent and the growing public anger surrounding Britain’s inability to secure its borders.
For Mr Farage, however, the events in Dover and Portsmouth represent something even more serious: a warning that the political system is losing control of an issue he has spent years insisting would eventually reach a breaking point.
And with migrant protests now spreading along the south coast, he believes Britain has not yet reached the worst of it.
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