‘We Want to Do the Keir Starmer’: How Labour Is Inspiring a New Anti-Migrant Vigilante Operation

A far-right linked football hooligan said he wants to “do the Keir Starmer” as he plans a second world war themed anti-migrant vigilante expedition.

Discussing plans for Raise the Colours – the activist group which erected thousands of St George’s and union jack flags  across the UK last year – co-founder Ryan Bridge said the group would stop small-boats migration where the government had failed to do so. He namechecked the prime minister, saying: “We’ve all got this burning passion inside us that we know it’s [small boat migration] not right. We want to stop it. We really do want to do the Keir Starmer, we’re going to smash the gangs.”

In November, Bridge and several associates went to Calais, northern France. Videos posted on social media show members of the group wading into the Channel to shout at migrants in a boat. In another video, they show off small boats that they have slashed.

This was the first stage of what activists are dubbing Operation Overlord, a reference to D-Day, in which nearly 160,000 allied troops crossed the Channel in June 1944, leading the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany.

Speaking on the Anything Goes with James English podcast about his experiences in Calais and plans for the coming year, Bridge, who has described migration as an “illegal invasion”, said: “You can see Dover and […] think, ‘Bloody hell, the Germans got this far and we held them back in the war’.”

Bridge said the group would use the winter months – when migrants tend not to cross due to the weather – “to plan what we’re going to do going forward for the summer and we’re going to stop this. I reckon by this time next year hopefully you have me on [your show] and you say, ‘Ryan, well done, them bloody boats stopped’, but they [migrants] might move on to the next thing.”

He said: “I think with everyone in the country coming together we can do what Starmer was going to do and smash the gangs.”

The comments will raise further questions for the government after aid workers told Novara Media that Starmer’s rhetoric was to blame for a surge of far-right activists visiting Calais to harass migrants in the summer.

Lachlan Macrae from the Calais Food Collective said: “Raise the Colours was previously endorsed by Keir Starmer. The reason why they’re coming out and doing this stuff is because they’re emboldened.

“They come with bulletproof vests or stabproof fests, and they go onto the beaches, and they’ve been harassing people. They’ve been streaming this content.”

Macrae said Calais has become infested with day-tripping anti-migrant provocateurs and far-right activists. “There have always been far-right groups coming to Calais, but we’re seeing more and more and more as it has become a focal point in the media and politics,” he said. “As the ground is ceded to the far right, the far right has grown in response. Far right groups in Calais are the norm now.”

Macrae said that Calais Food Collective, which provides food and water to people waiting to make the journey to the UK, is seeing an increase in incidents of sabotage.

“Never before had we seen a swastika sprung up on a water container meant for displaced people – but now we have,” he said. Collective members have found water containers stabbed, or with soap poured in so that the water becomes undrinkable.

Calais is the final staging post for migrants seeking to come to the UK, many of whom have faced long and perilous journeys over land and sea, fleeing war-torn or impoverished countries.

Bridge claimed his operation had caused a temporary pause in small-boats migration to this country, saying: “I think we have made a change because 1,500 [migrants] came in on that day and since that day, which is over a month ago now, nearly six weeks ago, not one immigrant has come across.”

Macrae dismissed this as “preposterous” saying: “There was a big period of no crossings, but that’s because of the weather window. With 0.5 metres of waves, people aren’t going to cross.

He added: “It’s just clearly just marketing from him, trying to pretend and trying to get people to come along and trying to give himself this importance.

“If you have travelled from Sudan, the way you understand risk is different. People are not going to turn around because there is some angry white guy on the beach screaming at them. ‘I’m gonna go back to El Fasher’ – that’s not gonna happen.”

Raise the Colours grabbed headlines last year after erecting thousands of St George’s and union jack flags across the country. It was endorsed by far-right groups and figures including former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson, and was accused of inflaming racial tensions – something the group denied.

Starmer gave the group a tacit endorsement, saying he is “very encouraging” of people flying flags, and that his family had “got St George’s flag in our flat” in Downing Street. He also warned: “I think sometimes when they’re used purely for divisive purposes, actually it devalues the flag.”

While Starmer appears to have emboldened anti-migrant activists, they have no love for him. Bridge said: “He’s head of that flag, he’s the master and chief and he couldn’t fight sleep. He’s not a leader.”

Bridge dismissed the labels far-right and fascist, saying: “Hitler was a raving psychopath. That’s not what we’re about.” In fact, Bridge has asserted that he’s reclaiming the flag from far-right groups.

“Some people class [the St George’s cross] as an EDL flag and they class [the union jack] as a National Front flag”, he said, but “we can take this [the flags] back off anything that’s racist.” Bridge’s claim to anti-racism is undermined by the integral role in Raise the Colours played by Danny Tommo – a right-hand man of Tommy Robinson, who was once jailed for two years for a failed knifepoint kidnapping attempt of the wrong person.

Bridge promised that this year there will be “more flags than ever going up” around the UK. However, his sights are clearly set on Calais, saying: “Legally and lawfully, we’re going to take the bull by the horns and Operation Overlord is going to come into play and we’re going to try and make a change.”

Bridge is a football hooligan associated with the Zulus firm of Birmingham City supporters Discussing an arrest and three-year ban for brawling with Man United and Aston Villa fans, he said: “The football violence buzz … if it’s in you, it’s in you … you’re not attacking an illegal immigrant, you’re not a bully … it’s the best buzz, when you’re with the boys and you’re going for the meet, it’s the best buzz in the world.”