Dover and Portsmouth: Protests

Debate between Sarah Jones and Kevin McKenna

Monday 7th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Jones]

I suspect the right hon. Gentleman has already had conversations with immigration Ministers about this particular case, and I suspect he is making the same arguments to them. I would not want to get in the way of that, and I am sure the relevant Minister would be happy to have those conversations. We need to bear down on the overall number of arrivals, which is what we are trying to do. We are not just closing the hotels, but reducing the number of arrivals and reducing the incentives for people to come in, which is why we are introducing the raft of policy interventions that I spoke about earlier.

[Kevin McKenna (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) (Lab)]

I commend the Minister for managing to handle two really difficult challenges that are facing the country at the moment. First, the small boats crossings are obviously very concerning to people in Sittingbourne and Sheppey, as they are to many people in Kent. It has not escaped my notice that the protest in Dover at the weekend happened at a time when the boat crossings are falling. The second challenge is the increasing far-right activity. We have had uniformed thugs on our streets who have been organising relentlessly behind the scenes and publicly on Facebook, and we have to come down hard on it.

I would like to ask the Minister two things. First, we have seen this before—this is not the first time that the country and other countries have faced this. In the 1930s we banned uniformed political parties and uniformed political activists. Obviously we now wear slightly different clothing from what was worn back then, so has the Minister looked at how we can update the law to address these thugs and make sure that it is fit for purpose in the modern world?

Secondly, the local independent news outlet Kent Current reports that these thugs were mustering in nearby villages the night before the incident in Dover. Local people picked this up and had been reporting it, but that seems to have been missed. Can the Minister look at that and make sure that intelligence from concerned people on the ground in Kent is also factored in?

[Sarah Jones]

As I said earlier, I cannot comment on the intelligence situation of what happened with these two incidents, but we will of course learn lessons. What we knew in advance, and what was or was not done about that, will be a very important lesson for us to learn. As well as the intelligence that the local police are able to gather, we now have the national co-ordination of the NPCC, which has extra resources for things such as internet intelligence investigations. We can reach further and co-ordinate better than we could before, but I am sure there will be lessons to learn. I will take away my hon. Friend’s question about the uniform of political parties.