Patriot Platform
Patriot Platform
Type: Far-right anti-migrant network / umbrella "patriot" movement (UK-wide, cell-based)
Founded: Launched end of May / June 2026 (Searchlight says end of May; Guardian and HOPE not hate both say June)
Founder/Leader: Daniel Thomas, aka Danny Tommo (b. ~1989, age 37)
Website: patriotplatform.co.uk — domain registered 18 May 2026 via Tucows, Wix nameservers
Primary social: X — @RealDannyTommo@RealDannyTommo; YouTube — @DannyTommo (YouTubemain channeldistribution also primary;channel, £4.99/month membership tier)
Status: Active — first mass mobilisations 5–7 September 2026 (Dover, Portsmouth)
BookStack page: 1025 — https://wiki.beanfarmer.cymru/books/uk-politics/page/patriot-platform
Tags: #uk #far-right #anti-immigration #christian-nationalist #vigilante #movement #reference
Overview
Patriot Platform is a UK far-right network formed in mid-2026 by Daniel Thomas — "Danny Tommo" — the former bodyguard and long-time sidekick of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson). It is not a political party and has no manifesto. Its stated purpose is to unite the country's fragmented local "patriot" groups into a single mobilisable force operating "boots on the ground".
The group's first major public action came on Saturday 5 September 2026, when several hundred masked men dressed head-to-toe in black appeared in Dover at 7am, occupied roundabouts and blocked the A20 in both directions, causing a four-mile traffic queue. The following day (Sunday 6 September) the group joined an existing demonstration in Portsmouth, after a "mega-dinghy" carrying around 120–140 asylum seekers was brought into the Solent. Protesters tried to prevent coaches moving arrivals from Eastney marina to an immigration processing centre; riot police used batons and pepper spray, a small number of officers were injured, and vehicles were damaged.
Commentators and monitors describe the Dover/Portsmouth weekend as a genuine shift in UK far-right tactics: away from mass flag-waving demonstrations towards smaller, disciplined, networked, clandestine and quasi-vigilante action, explicitly styled on Oswald Mosley's blackshirts and wrapped in aggressive Christian-nationalist language ("Christ is King"). Anti-fascist monitors HOPE not hate and Searchlight both treat it as significant while noting Tommo's long record of failed and farcical stunts.
Key Figures
Daniel Thomas — "Danny Tommo" (founder and leader)
- Age: 37 (as of September 2026)
- From: Hayling Island, near Portsmouth (privately educated in Hampshire)
- Background: Thought to have served as a tank driver with the King's Royal Hussars before being discharged early on medical grounds. Later ran a roofing firm — RMT Roofing Specialists Ltd — a detail that becomes relevant to the September 2026 Daily Mail row (see below).
- Criminal record: Jailed for two years in 2016 after pleading guilty to attempted kidnapping at knifepoint in a Portsmouth drugs dispute. He and two other men burst into a man's house, wrongly believing he had stolen £10,000 of drugs, and tried to drag him into the street. The judge condemned the three men for their "stupidity"; Tommo was released and describes himself as having "repented" and given his life to Jesus.
- Far-right career: Became close to Tommy Robinson after release; organised the 2018 "Free Tommy" rally in London; was on the platform with Robinson at the July 2024 Whitehall rally; during the August 2024 Southport riots broadcast a video to followers saying "Every city must go up!" — he was not prosecuted while others were jailed for similar incitement.
- 2025–26: Holiday with Robinson in Tenerife (June 2025); joined Ryan Bridge and Elliott Stanley's Raise the Colours for "Operation Overlord II" and an anti-migrant trip to northern France (November 2025); part of a group of 10 British extremists banned from France in January 2026; defied the ban by entering France via Belgium for "Operation Overlord" in January 2026 before being arrested by counter-terror police. Also arrested in Dover in April 2026 over stalking refugees/illegal activity at the port.
- Due in court: October 2026, accused of going into a restricted zone in Dover earlier in 2026 and of threatening behaviour.
- Note on the "Tommo Tapes": Leaked recordings published by Searchlight (May 2026) captured Tommo telling Ryan Bridge it was time to "move away from Tommy", saying he still "loved him to bits" but that Robinson was no longer right for what he wanted to achieve — an early signal of his leadership ambitions.
- Reporting discrepancy: the Guardian describes him as a father of five; The New Arab says father of four.
Named members / inner circle
HOPE not hate has documented that several men "handpicked" for what Tommo calls a rigorously vetted group have serious violent convictions:
- Kevin Jones — Thanet Patriots; attended the first Patriot Platform meeting. In 2018 pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, two counts of wounding and two counts of assault during a drug-fuelled incident in which he attacked his partner and her mother with a bread knife and then drove his father's car into his partner's home. Jailed for three years and four months.
- Adrian Clark — leading Thanet Patriots member; suspended sentence in 2018 for ABH after punching a co-worker several times in the face; prior convictions for common assault and assaulting a police officer. Filmed in August 2026 saying: "we've all done stupid shit, but if any of these other people want to sit out there and say 'oh you're a domestic abuser', what do you think these people on the boats have a better criminal record than me? You having a laugh?" — while promoting Patriot Platform and the Kalergi Plan conspiracy theory.
- Alby Brannan — attended the second meeting of "vetted" members; pleaded guilty in 2024 to violent disorder after throwing fireworks at the Potters International Hotel in Aldershot, which houses asylum seekers.
- Luke Jackson, Billy Cooper and "Sid" — South London Patriots; all part of Tommo's January 2026 Operation Overlord trip to Calais in defiance of the French ban.
- Jay Mills — Christian nationalist from Ashford, Kent; led Patriots United Kingdom, which briefly affiliated to Patriot Platform in late July 2026 before withdrawing (see Timeline).
Constituent Groups
Patriot Platform functions as a network of reps from pre-existing local groups rather than a single hierarchical organisation. Groups named in reporting include:
- Thanet Patriots
- Watford Patriots
- Bournemouth Patriots
- South East Patriots
- South London Patriots
- North-West Patriots
- Surrey Patriots
- Chertsey Patriots
- Freelance Patriots
- Patriots United Kingdom (affiliated late July 2026, left within days)
Its appeal is primarily southern England, with some north-west representation.
Ideology & Rhetoric
The group has no manifesto. Its website (patriotplatform.co.uk) uses five one-word values — Freedom, Fairness, Family, Faith, Homeland — and slogans such as "Real People. Real Britain. Real Talk.", "The time for polite silence is over", "Love of country. Not hate." and "Together, we will take our country back." It offers three steps for recruits: Register → Stay informed (email and SMS updates) → Get involved.
Key framings:
- Christian nationalism — Tommo calls it a "patriotic army" of Christian men: "We're doing this under Christianity. We're doing this with Christian British and English men. We're not doing this with thugs." Chants at Dover included "Christ is King"; some marchers wore silver crosses. Donors to his fundraising pages can press a button to pledge prayer instead of money.
- Protecting women and children — the central emotional pitch, with manosphere undertones (the "misogynistic suggestion that women are helpless people needing to be protected", per University of Bath researcher Darja Wischerath).
- Direct action over protest — "For too long we've been walking down roads and waving flags and thinking this is somehow going to save us"; "Migrants are having a detrimental effect on the safety of our women and children."
- Discipline and "quality over quantity" — Tommo claims vetting, "clear rules, no shouting, no alcohol, no flag waving, no drugs", lawyers on call, and says he wants "discipline" rather than "the drinkers" and "the violence". Monitors call this claim belied by the criminal records of his named members.
- Vague menace — "I know exactly what needs to be done. Now is the time to act"; "once the message is sent once, imagine the sheer numbers that will be sent on the second, the third, the fourth message."
Structure, Tactics & Money
- Cell/network model. Analysts describe Patriot Platform as connecting disparate local "patriot" formations rather than building a single organisation — a relatively small, committed set of activists travelling between coastal flashpoints, communicating privately, and drawing local support on arrival.
- Uniform and anonymity. Black clothing, balaclavas and gloves. Tommo says the coverings are necessary because "the left routinely puts lives at risk" by publishing addresses. In Portsmouth he said the group was non-violent and acting within the law, and blamed violence on "lefties trying to make us look bad".
- Mobilisation. Short-notice, algorithm-driven flashmobbing. Kent Police described the Dover action as "spontaneous"; the local MP Mike Tapp called that claim into question — "A clearly coordinated protest is not 'spontaneous'." HOPE not hate subsequently reported that Kent Police had been tipped off about the mobilisation.
- Livestreaming. Tommo livestreams extensively across X, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. His footage of the Dover weekend has been reported at over a million views in total; one four-hour livestream of the Portsmouth seafront operation drew 700,000+ views.
- Money. A £4.99/month subscription on his YouTube channel; monthly Patriot Platform fundraising targets (an initial £5,000/month target reportedly fell short) with stated costs for buses, accommodation, "secure facilities", fuel, studio equipment and marine equipment; and in September 2026 a crowdfunder to relocate his mother that had raised over £62,000 by Friday 11 September.
- Historical funding. The New Arab reported that US court documents show Tommo received a $32,000 grant in 2018 from the Middle East Forum, a US-based anti-Islam and strongly pro-Israel think tank, to fund the "Free Tommy" rally. The relationship later broke down, with MEF accusing him of misappropriating at least $7,000 for personal use — allegations aired in the think tank's unsuccessful lawsuit against its then communications chief, Lisa Barbounis.
- Other money disputes. Tommo's partnership with Ryan Bridge's Raise the Colours collapsed after Bridge refused to hand over part of online fundraising proceeds to pay Tommo a salary; Tommo complained publicly that he was "skint".
Platform, Domain & Funding Infrastructure
Verified 12 September 2026 from public registry and page-source data:
patriotplatform.co.uk was registered on 18 May 2026 through Tucows, with nameservers ns6.wixdns.net / ns7.wixdns.net — i.e. the site is Wix-hosted. Nominet records that the registrant's name and address were validated against a third-party data source on 18 May 2026, so the registrant is a verified real identity, though not published. Registration predates the public launch, matching Searchlight's account that the project launched at the end of May.
The funnel is a commercial CRM. The sign-up form is served by GoHighLevel / LeadConnector (api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/form/uN8mVQB1MfLcpEZ2VI4p), with Stripe and PayPal also present in the page source. In plain terms: the recruitment list, the email/SMS broadcast, the vetting questionnaire and the payments are all outsourced to an off-the-shelf marketing-automation platform. That is where the "45,000 sign-ups" actually live.
The site itself is thin. No robots.txt and no sitemap.xml — a single-page Wix brochure site with the stated three-step funnel: Register (name and location) → Stay informed (email and SMS) → Get involved.
Fundraising. The appeal for Tommo's mother is hosted on GiveSendGo — a US platform popular with the Christian right — and has passed £65,000 against an original £10,000 target (Searchlight, 11 Sep 2026). Separately, his YouTube channel sells a £4.99/month membership, and Patriot Platform's own stated monthly fundraising target was £5,000.
Owned infrastructure is an explicit ask. A 25 August video appeals publicly for supporters' boats, RIBs, mini buses and coaches — the movement is crowd-sourcing its operational assets rather than buying them.
Primary Sources: The Movement's Own Output
YouTube — @DannyTommo is the movement's principal distribution channel: roughly 60 uploads in the recent window, routinely into six figures of views. The titles are the movement's own framing, so they are reproduced verbatim. (View counts captured 12 September 2026.)
What the channel shows:
Timeline (2024 – September 2026)
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| July 2024 | On platform with Tommy Robinson at Whitehall rally |
| Aug 2024 | "Every city must go up!" video during the Southport riots — not prosecuted |
| Nov 2025 | "Operation Overlord II" with Raise the Colours — anti-migrant stunts in northern France |
| Jan 2026 | France bans Tommo and 9 other British anti-migrant activists; he returns via Belgium for "Operation Overlord", is arrested by counter-terror police |
| Apr 2026 | Arrested in Dover over stalking refugees at the port |
Responses
- Nigel Farage (Reform UK) called the tactics "disgusting": "Nobody, at any political protest, whether they're on the left or right, should be wearing balaclavas. It is wrong, it's horrible."
- Shabana Mahmood (Home Secretary) said police should make "full use" of new powers to ban face coverings at protests; the Home Office condemned "the intimidating and thuggish behaviour" and said protest "must never cross a line into disorder". No 10 condemned "thuggish" far-right activists.
- Kent Police faced criticism over intelligence failure; the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott was accused of a "word salad" response. The policing minister made a statement to the Commons and forces were told to improve intelligence gathering.
- Mike Tapp MP (Labour, Dover) called the demonstrators "idiots coming to Dover to cause disruption"; Tony Vaughan MP (Folkestone and Hythe) warned about "significant online coordination" allowing mobilisation "at very short notice and under the radar".
- HOPE not hate (Joe Mulhall) called it "an alarming development" — "much more vigilante in style, and organised in a more clandestine way" — and published the criminal records of handpicked members.
- Searchlight: "Is Danny Tommo a threat or a clown? Actually, he's a bit of both."
- Church of England — the bishop of Kirkstall, Arun Arora, said the cross on protest marches is not the cross of Christ "but rather a fashion accessory utilised by opportunists". Theos research lead Madeleine Pennington described a "step-change" in UK Christian nationalism.
- Academics — William Allchorn (Anglia Ruskin) argues the significance is less whether Patriot Platform survives than whether its networks, tactics and framing get adopted more widely; Beatriz Lopes Buarque (Manchester) highlights algorithmic amplification of racist conspiracy theories; Darja Wischerath (Bath) notes influencer-style content production and manosphere framing.
Official Record
Terminology & Narrative Notes
- "Patriot" is used as a self-designation by the movement and its supporters; this file follows the convention of the existing Politics research corpus by using it as the movement's own term, with "far-right" as the analytical label used by monitors, police and the press.
- "Masked"/"balaclava" is the key visual signifier, and the focus of police enforcement threats.
- The movement's self-narrative of discipline and lawfulness is heavily contested; the September 2026 Daily Mail episode (doxxing row that backfired) and the rapid withdrawal of Patriots UK are the main counter-examples cited by monitors.
- This file is a monitoring profile, not an endorsement of any description given by the group about itself.
Local & Regional Coverage
The national outlets covered Dover, Portsmouth and the Daily Mail row heavily. The local and regional press have material the nationals do not — each affiliated group has a local footprint.
Other regional groups identified through social-media monitoring but not yet covered anywhere: Essex Patriots, Kent Patriots, South Coast Patriots (an umbrella of the Portsmouth/Southampton/Bournemouth groups), SouthWest Patriots Alliance (a South West network), North East Patriots (Instagram), and Freelance Patriots.
Public Records Checks
Verified directly against primary registries on 12 September 2026, not taken from press reporting.
- Companies House — RMT Roofing Specialists Ltd, company no. 15260923. Incorporated 5 November 2023; SIC 43910 (roofing activities); registered office is a residential address in Tangmere, Chichester, West Sussex. Status is "Active — Active proposal to strike off", with accounts made up to 30 November 2025 overdue (due 31 August 2026); next confirmation statement due 18 November 2026. This corroborates Searchlight's 10 September claim that Tommo registered his company at his mother's address — and adds a detail not in any coverage reviewed: the company is in the strike-off process with overdue filings. *(Note: the full street address and postcode are deliberately not reproduced here. It is a residential address, and the surrounding story is that his mother was forced out of her home. The registry reference above is enough to verify the claim.)_
- US federal courts — Barbounis v. The Middle East Forum, District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania, docket 2:20-cv-02946, filed 18 June 2020, terminated 7 January 2022. This is the primary source behind The New Arab's $32,000-grant reporting; the RECAP docket and filings are available on CourtListener, so the funding allegations can be read first-hand rather than via the article.
- Wikipedia carries a substantial "Daniel Thomas (activist)" article (Wikidata Q141366502) with a heavy citation trail, plus a separate "Raise the Colours (organisation)" article — useful as a pointer to sources not yet pulled.
- Internet Archive holds three snapshots of patriotplatform.co.uk — 13 June 2026 (pre-launch/hype phase, ~234KB) and 28 August / 8 September 2026 (~383KB). The June capture predates the Dover action and is the earliest public version of the movement's own messaging.
Sources
- Guardian — "What is Patriot Platform, the far-right group that descended on Dover and Portsmouth?" (Kevin Rawlinson, 7 Sep 2026) — https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/07/patriot-platform-far-right-group-dover-portsmouth
- Guardian — "'Army of Christian patriots': how a black-clad vigilante group swarmed Portsmouth" (Daniel Boffey, Steven Morris, Ben Quinn, Diane Taylor, 8 Sep 2026) — https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2026/sep/08/how-a-black-clad-christian-vigilante-group-swarmed-portsmouth
- Guardian — "From black-clad agitators to an appeal for 'Tommo's Mum': an unsettling week with the Patriot Platform" (Amelia Gentleman, 12 Sep 2026) — https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2026/sep/12/from-black-clad-agitators-to-an-appeal-for-tommos-mum-an-unsettling-week-with-the-patriot-platform
- Guardian — ministers condemn "thuggish" Portsmouth conduct (7 Sep 2026) — https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/sep/07/ministers-condemn-far-right-activists-portsmouth-asylum-seekers
- Searchlight — "Danny Tommo's pound shop Nuremberg with blackshirt 'patriots'" (Daniel Katz, 9 Aug 2026) — https://searchlightmagazine.com/2026/08/danny-tommos-pound-shop-nuremberg-with-blackshirt-patriots/
- Searchlight — "Patriot Platform: Danny Tommo's latest grift starts to unravel" (11 Aug 2026) — https://searchlightmagazine.com/2026/08/patriot-platform-danny-tommos-latest-grift-starts-to-unravel/
- Searchlight — "Is Danny Tommo a threat or a clown? Actually, he's a bit of both" (9 Sep 2026) — https://searchlightmagazine.com/2026/09/is-danny-tommo-a-threat-or-a-clown-actually-a-bit-of-both/
- Searchlight — "Danny Tommo doxxes his own mum and blames the Daily Mail" (10 Sep 2026) — https://searchlightmagazine.com/2026/09/danny-tommo-doxxes-his-own-mum-and-blames-the-daily-mail/
- HOPE not hate — "Patriot Platform: Danny Tommo's 'handpicked' men convicted of violence against women" (Right Response Team, 13 Aug 2026) — https://hopenothate.org.uk/2026/08/13/patriot-platform-danny-tommos-handpicked-men-convicted-of-violence-against-women/
- The New Arab — "Who is funding Britain's far right? Danny Tommo's US, Israel links" (Matthew Hoare, 10 Sep 2026) — https://www.newarab.com/news/who-funding-uks-far-right-danny-tommos-us-israel-links
- Nation.Cymru / The Conversation — "What Patriot Platform tells us about how the far right in the UK is changing its tactics" (William Allchorn, 11 Sep 2026) — https://nation.cymru/feature/what-patriot-platform-tells-us-about-how-the-far-right-in-the-uk-is-changing-its-tactics/
- CNN — "Dover protests: far-right masked protests" (7 Sep 2026) — https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/07/uk/dover-protests-far-right-masked-intl
- Channel 4 News — "What we know about Danny Tommo and Patriot Platform" (Ciaran Jenkins, 7 Sep 2026) — https://www.channel4.com/news/what-we-know-about-danny-tommo-and-patriot-platform-the-group-behind-the-portsmouth-protest
- Patriot Platform official site — https://patriotplatform.co.uk/
- X/Twitter discourse — @RealDannyTommo and reaction threads (captured via Nitter, 12 Sep 2026)
- Facebook discourse — reaction posts and reposted news comment (captured via Phice, 12 Sep 2026)
- YouTube — @DannyTommo channel listing and video metadata (yt-dlp, 12 Sep 2026)
Notes / Gaps
Sources checked and found empty (12 Sep 2026), so future sweeps don't repeat them: Byline Times (no Patriot Platform coverage — far-right coverage is about other groups); openDemocracy (no results); GNET and ISD (no results); Theos (nothing naming the group, though their Christian-nationalism project is due); the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right's old domain radicalrightanalysis.com no longer resolves — the new CARR URL needs finding; KentOnline's internal site search returns nothing; Sky News blocks the Playwright scraper outright (use the Nitter/Phice quotes of Sky's reporting instead); GoFundMe search returns unrelated fundraisers — the appeal is on GiveSendGo, whose own search 404s to automated access.
- Sign-up figures (30,000 → 40,000 → 45,000) are Tommo's own claims and unverified.
- The 12 September Portsmouth march outcome is not yet fully reported; the Platform publicly disowned the event after police threatened mask arrests — but other "South Coast Patriots" elements were still expected on the street.
- The New Arab's MEF funding claim rests on US court filings from a lawsuit MEF lost; treat the $32,000 grant as documented and the misuse allegation as MEF's unproven claim.
- Monitor the RNLI angle: Patriot Platform-aligned activists branding lifeboat volunteers "traitors" and picketing RNLI stations (Poole, 9 Sep) is a distinct escalation from port protests.
- Still open, in priority order: (1) the full RECAP docket in Barbounis v. Middle East Forum — the $32,000 grant and the $7,000 misappropriation allegation read first-hand; (2) whether the Middle East Forum's own IRS 990 filings (EIN 237749796, Philadelphia) disclose anything on the 2018 grant — note they are unlikely to, since 990s do not itemise grants to individuals, so the court record remains the primary source; (3) the College of Policing learning review when published; (4) the October 2026 Dover hearing; (5) whether "#PatriotPlatform Designated Area Groups" gets used as the formal cell structure — supporters talk of it as a voting bloc being built for elections ("only 4 weeks been live"), which would move it from street movement to electoral vehicle; (6) the closed spaces — no public Telegram or Discord channel was found, so organising runs through the Wix/GoHighLevel funnel and private groups, and the leaked-screenshot traffic on X and Facebook is the only visible edge of it.
right-wing youtubers/tommy-robinson.md, uk-far-right-social-media-tropes.md, christian-nationalism-uk.md, Riots Protests Demos/right-wing-demos-uk.md.