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Politics146 outlets ran this3 min read

Far-right activist Danny Tommo arrested over Channel boat damage

Hampshire Police detained Daniel Thomas on suspicion of criminal damage and endangering life.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
Far-right activist Danny Tommo arrested over Channel boat damage

What this story says

  • Far-right activist Daniel Thomas, known as Danny Tommo, was arrested by Hampshire Police.
  • He was detained on suspicion of criminal damage and recklessly endangering life.
  • The arrest is linked to footage appearing to show Thomas slashing a dinghy in the English Channel.
  • A rescue crew member was reportedly on board the dinghy when it was damaged.

Who covered it

Left 32%(31)Centre 41%(39)Right 27%(26)

Percentages are shares of the 96 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 50 of the 146 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

60/100

Craft

65/100

Hype

45/100

146 sources · methodology

Missing from the right

Only 26 of the 96 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

A reader who follows the right would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

Far-right activist Daniel Thomas, also known as Danny Tommo, has been arrested by Hampshire Police. He was detained on suspicion of criminal damage and other offences, including recklessly endangering life. The arrest follows footage that appears to show Thomas slashing the side of a dinghy in the English Channel. A rescue crew member was reportedly on board the dinghy at the time it was damaged.

Thomas was filmed by police at a petrol station and subsequently taken into custody. According to a Hampshire Police statement, the 37-year-old, who is of no fixed abode, was arrested on suspicion of destroying ships or fixed platforms or endangering their safety under Section 11 of the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990, criminal damage, criminal damage with intent to endanger life, and conduct endangering ships, structures or individuals under Section 58 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995. He remained in custody at the time of reporting.

Disagreement on timing of arrest

The London Economic reported that Thomas was arrested on Wednesday 23 September. The Evening Standard and Sky News UK stated that the incident was reported on Tuesday evening and the arrest occurred last night, without specifying the day of the week for the arrest.

What the coverage left out

None of the left-rated or centre-rated reports mention the specific number of migrants on board the dinghy, nor do they detail the total number of people arrested by Hampshire Police during protests in Gosport.

Tags:#DannyTommo#EnglishChannel#MigrantCrisis#CriminalDamage#HampshirePolice

Coverage settled. We checked this 10 times and stopped on 29 Sept 2026, 21:30. The figures above are what it finished at.

How other outlets pictured it

Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.

danny tommo arrested
The London EconomicLeft
Danny Tommo filmed himself slashing a dinghy in the Channel while a rescue worker was still onboard <i>(Image: Danny Tommo)</i>
The NationalLeft

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

31 rated outlets

  • The London Economic and The National reported that Danny Tommo, also known as Daniel Thomas, was arrested on Wednesday. Hampshire Police stated the arrest was for criminal damage with intent to endanger life and other offences.
  • Both outlets published footage of the arrest, showing police approaching Tommo at a petrol station. The London Economic reported Tommo was arrested on suspicion of destroying ships or fixed platforms or endangering their safety.
  • The National reported Tommo filmed himself slashing a dinghy while a rescue worker was on board. This outlet also stated Tommo had previously served two years in prison for attempted kidnapping.

Centre

39 rated outlets

  • The Evening Standard and Sky News UK identified Daniel Thomas as an anti-migrant protester. Both reports stated he was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after footage appeared to show him slashing an inflatable boat with a knife. The Evening Standard detailed the specific charges under the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990 and the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, and noted that a rescue crew member was on board the dinghy when it was damaged. Sky News UK's digest mentioned the presence of an emergency worker on the damaged boat.

Right

26 rated outlets

  • Right-rated outlets reported the arrest of Danny Tommo, also known as Daniel Thomas, on suspicion of criminal damage with intent to endanger life. Most digests noted he was filmed slashing a migrant dinghy in the English Channel.
  • Several reports mentioned a rescue crew member was on board the boat when it was damaged. Some digests stated Tommo leads the Patriot Platform group and has protested against migrants crossing the Channel.
  • The digests did not mention the cost of the damage or any specific statements from police beyond the suspicion of criminal damage with intent to endanger life.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Far-right activist Danny Tommo arrested over Channel boat damage?
Of the 96 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 32% are rated left, 41% are rated centre, 27% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 146. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Far-right activist Danny Tommo arrested over Channel boat damage left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 96 rated outlets on this story, 32% are rated left, 41% are rated centre, 27% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Far-right activist Danny Tommo arrested over Channel boat damage biased?
Far-right activist Danny Tommo arrested over Channel boat damage is one event reported by 146 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Far-right activist Danny Tommo arrested over Channel boat damage?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Far-right activist Danny Tommo arrested over Channel boat damage?
146 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
Why was Danny Tommo arrested?
Daniel Thomas, also known as Danny Tommo, was arrested by Hampshire Police on suspicion of criminal damage and recklessly endangering life. The arrest is linked to footage appearing to show him slashing a dinghy in the English Channel.
What was damaged?
Footage appears to show Daniel Thomas slashing the side of a dinghy in the English Channel. A rescue crew member was reportedly on board the vessel when it was damaged.
What specific charges does police suspect Daniel Thomas of?
Hampshire Police arrested Daniel Thomas on suspicion of destroying ships or fixed platforms or endangering their safety under Section 11 of the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990, criminal damage, criminal damage with intent to endanger life, and conduct endangering ships, structures or individuals under Section 58 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.

Read it at the source

162 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

35
Show 27 more

Centre

46
Show 38 more

Right

29
Show 21 more

Not rated

52
Show 44 more

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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