Andy Burnham told Labour MPs and peers on Monday that the party had a "solemn responsibility to prevent the politics of poison seeping into our streets", according to accounts of a closed-doors meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, after masked anti-migration protesters blockaded roads in Dover and confronted police in Portsmouth over the weekend.
The Prime Minister told the meeting the party's mission must be to counter "fear with positivity and hope", according to those accounts, and said: "We have to fulfil our historic mission all over again and bring hope to a divided country." No official transcript of the private meeting has been published.
His remarks followed a statement to the Commons by Sarah Jones, the policing and crime minister, which gave the Government's first formal account of the weekend to Parliament and set out the scale of the stand-off in Portsmouth.
Ms Jones told MPs that approximately 120 migrants arrived in a boat near the Isle of Wight in the early afternoon on Sunday, and that more than 200 protesters then attempted to stop three coaches due to take the arrivals for processing. The figure of about 140 arrivals has been widely reported elsewhere.
Official vehicles were damaged and a small number of police officers injured during the stand-off, which continued into the early hours of Monday. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary has opened an investigation into potential assaults and criminal damage. Ms Jones told MPs on Monday afternoon that no arrests had been made at that point. The force said around 200 activists left the city at about 4am, and that the coaches were able to leave Portsmouth early on Monday.
The minister warned that any demonstrators who crossed the line "from peaceful protest into illegality will face the full force of the law". She described Patriot Platform, the group which claims to have organised Saturday's protest in Dover, as "far-right racist".
Hundreds of men dressed in black and wearing balaclavas blockaded roads in and around Dover on the morning of Saturday 5 September, with a group later marching through the town chanting "stop the boats". Kent Police said in a statement that it had responded to "a spontaneous protest", that no arrests were made and that all involved had dispersed by midday. Assistant chief constable Nigel Brookes said the only criminal offence under investigation was damage to a road.
That characterisation has been challenged locally. Mike Tapp, the Labour MP for Dover and Deal and a migration minister until July, wrote on X: "A clearly coordinated protest is not 'spontaneous' as described by Police." Kevin Mills, the Labour leader of Dover District Council, described the protest as "exceptionally well organised".
Patriot Platform was founded over the summer by Daniel Thomas, known as Danny Tommo, who was jailed for two years in 2016 after pleading guilty to attempting to kidnap a man at knifepoint. Asked about the masks worn by his supporters, Mr Thomas said in Portsmouth on Monday: "The only reason they've done that is because no-one wants to be labelled far right." He said there had been no violence in Dover.
Max Wilkinson, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, pressed the Government on the police response, asking: "How is it that far-right thugs in balaclavas were able to close Britain's busiest port without the police receiving any prior intelligence."
Ms Jones replied that it would not be appropriate for the Government to comment on specific intelligence matters, adding: "but of course we are looking at all decisions that were taken, and we will learn any lessons."
Mr Tapp has called on Mr Burnham to convene a meeting of the Cobra emergencies committee over small boat crossings, telling Sky's The Cathy Newman Show: "We have to gain control of the borders, and of course we've made progress but by convening Cobra, all of the mechanisms of government can come behind this problem and we can do our best to solve it." The Government has not said whether it will do so.
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