Most of the hundreds of men dressed in sinister balaclavas and black suits at the anti-migrant protest in Dover were anonymous, but one well-built man stood out from the crowd.
His name is Daniel Thomas, 37, founder of the Patriot Platform, who describes his army of protesters as “the working class people, the masons, roofers and carpenters who build the houses you live in, the roads you drive on.”
However, Daniel Thomas’s middle-class upbringing appears to be very different from that of the people he claims to represent.
He attended a private school in Hampshire, and his father Russell was a university-educated skiing enthusiast who retired to Brittany.
Now Thomas, who despite his respectable background is a convicted kidnapper serving time in prison, is seen by some as the heir apparent to his longtime far-right associate Tommy Robinson, for whom he was once a bodyguard.
While Robinson’s now-defunct English Defense League largely amounted to violent street protests, Thomas insists his movement will follow a “non-violent” path, despite the fearsome tactics of those balaclavas and much talk of “boots on the ground”.
Daniel Thomas (pictured left, in 2019), founder of the Patriot Platform, was the instigator of the protest that saw balaclava-clad people take to the streets of Dover this weekend.
Thomas, known online as “Danny Tommo”, later broadcast live in the ocean in Portsmouth after a boat carrying 140 migrants arrived off the English coast.
A man, believed to be Thomas, was arguing with a police officer while standing in the water at Eastney beach on Sunday afternoon.
More than 500 protesters took to the streets of Eastney in an attempt to stop asylum seekers being transported to an immigration centre.
Thomas live-streamed much of the protest and at one point filmed a bus leaving the coast.
It should be noted that the evidence on the streets of Portsmouth on Sunday night during the second protest was not in his favor, with police officers injured and vehicles damaged.
Father-of-four and director of a roofing company, Thomas, from Portsmouth, has a military background, having served as a tank driver in the Royal Hussars.
But his Army career was cut short when he was medically discharged before entering active duty.
Judging by YouTube videos of him rallying his troops and calling (not always successfully) for harsh discipline, the man known on social media as “Danny Tommo” clearly feels his time has come.
His mission now is to launch a mass movement of “men” to protect Britain from migrants.
But who is “Tommo” and how did he achieve the point of outsmarting police at Britain’s biggest ports not once, but twice in as many days?
He said his violent past brought him to a turning point and forced him to reinvent himself as a Christian activist. He was jailed for two years in 2016 after breaking into Graham Page’s Hayling Island home in Hampshire with two accomplices.
Thomas, who was Tommy Robinson’s bodyguard in May this year, has been hailed as the Unite the Kingdom leader’s long-term successor.
The three men were armed with knives and shouted “you’re coming with us” before punching the victim, pinning him against a wall and attempting to force him out of the house.
They wrongly accused Mr Page of stealing £10,000 worth of drugs from them.
How Thomas ended up in such company is unclear, but it is noteworthy that just a year later his father published a glowing tribute to Daniel’s younger brother Jack on his 16th birthday.
Russell Thomas wrote on Facebook: “I’m 16 years old today… WOW where the years have gone!” And congratulations on becoming trilingual, great job, well done!”
Sadly, Russell Thomas took his own life in France in 2022 at the age of just 60. None of Daniel Thomas’s three siblings appear to have followed him down the path of balaclavas and boots.
Brother Jack is now an aviation specialist at Swissport and works at Edinburgh Airport, and sister Victoria is a yoga teacher and osteopath from Brighton. She conducts advanced training courses for other yoga trainers and has worked as an instructor on a superyacht.
His other sister, Charlie, is an entrepreneur and business consultant who advises startups.
And last night Daniel’s mother Alison Thomas, 63, who lives in a tidy terraced house in Chichester, West Sussex, appeared to distance herself from her son’s recent activities.
The mother of four said: “He doesn’t live here. This is my home. I don’t want anyone to come here. I have nothing to do with this.
Thomas’ father Russell (left) tragically took his own life in 2022 in France.
Asked if she supported his actions, she replied: “I’m just a woman living alone with my German Shepherd and I don’t want any aggravation.”
Daniel and his partner Jasmine appear to be holidaying frequently in Tenerife and were staying at a luxury hotel last month.
His roofing company, RMT Roofing Specialists Ltd, claims to be “rooted in faith” and produces roofing work that reflects “our integrity and strong Christian values”.
After leaving prison, Thomas created the alias Danny Tommo and organized marches across the country calling for Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, to be freed from his contempt conviction.
Then, in 2018, he helped organize the United Kingdom Independence Party’s “Brexit Betrayal” rally, at which Robinson spoke.
Thomas told the Telegraph newspaper at the time that the kidnapping attempt was carried out because he had “messed up with some stupid people”, adding that “everyone deserves a second chance”. I got out of prison and turned my life around.”
Yesterday Thomas abruptly crashed a press conference held by UK Home Office reform spokesman Zia Yusuf and made clear he was unimpressed by Nigel Farage’s verdict on his protests in Dover and Portsmouth as “disgusting”.
Thomas shouted to Mr. Yusuf: “You have to understand, Yusuf, that what we are trying to do and the reason for creating the Patriot Platform is not about violence. We are not trying to intimidate anyone.
“Let me first explain to you why men wear masks. As you know, and as Nigel knows, the left in this country is attacking us en masse… The reason they cover their faces is because we know they will be targeted.”
He added: “What Nigel Farage did was not good. When you call people disgusting, yes, you should understand the reasons why this happens.”
Yesterday Thomas abruptly crashed a press conference held by UK Home Office reform spokesman Zia Yusuf (pictured) and made it clear he was not impressed
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He called himself a kingmaker, vowing that his followers would eventually “become a voting bloc.” He added that if Mr Farage “smears me, they will push us towards other parties”. At the end of the day, I like what… some (other) parties are doing.”
Thomas insists the Patriot Platform was created to protect the UK’s borders, not to promote extremism.
But after an unusual weekend of road closures, holiday delays, masked protesters and clashes with police, authorities – and politicians – are faced with a question that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: Is “Danny Tommo” just another rabble-rouser – or the figurehead of a new and increasingly organized form of anti-immigrant street politics?