Inside far-right leader Danny 'Tommo' Thomas - private education, conviction, and 'born again Christian'

Inside far-right leader Danny 'Tommo' Thomas - private education, conviction, and 'born again Christian' The Patriot Platform leader has risen to prominence in recent days after high-profile demonstrations in Dover and Portsmouth Once a bodyguard for far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, convicted attempted kidnapper Danny "Tommo" Thomas is the founder and leader of Patriot Platform. The group, set up earlier this year, organised for hundreds of balaclava-clad supporters to descend on Dover on Saturday morning, before Thomas led a second protest in Portsmouth on Sunday night. But just how did a privately-educated schoolboy, whose late father was reportedly a university-educated skiing enthusiast who retired to Brittany, become the new poster boy for the Stop The Boats movement? Thomas, a 37-year-old dad-of-four, served as a tank driver with the King’s Royal Hussars, but his Army career was cut short and he was discharged on medical grounds before seeing active service. In 2016, he was jailed for his part in the attempted armed kidnapping of a man on Hayling Island, Hampshire, where he grew up with a younger brother, who is now an aviation professional said to speak at least three languages, and two sisters, including a yoga teacher and a business consultant. The kidnap plot was described as "cowardly" and "extraordinarily frightening" by a judge, who heard how Thomas and two others swooped on a house armed with knives, while wrongly accusing their victim of stealing £10,000 worth of drugs from them. Portsmouth crown court heard they punched their victim, pinned him against a wall and grabbed and pulled his T-shirt, trying to force him from his home. At the time, prosecutor Robert Griffiths told the court: "They were all saying 'you're coming with us'. It seems they got completely the wrong person." After being sentenced to two years in jail, the dad-of-four became a born-again Christian behind bars and reportedly attended church every week following his release. He went on to brand himself as "Danny Tommo" on social media and has now been a prominent member of the far-right for many years, counting English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, as a close associate. Thomas, a roofing company director who describes his firm as "rooted in faith" with "strong Christian values", organised marches around the country calling for Robinson to be freed after he was jailed for contempt of court, including two rallies outside the Old Bailey during Robinson’s 2018 trial. He also travelled to Germany to campaign with anti-Islamic group Pegida and attended a top-level meeting with Gerard Batten, then leader of the political group, before helping to organise a UKIP ‘Brexit Betrayal’ rally that year, where Robinson spoke. Thomas reportedly made inflammatory comments online after the horrifying attack on a children's dance class, which included the deaths of three little girls, in Southport in 2024. Hope Not Hate's website says: "Daniel Thomas (AKA Danny Tommo), Tommy Robinson's associate, shared a video in the hours after the Southport attack claiming that 'we need to do something very extreme' and 'every city needs to go up'. Two days later, Thomas would lead a demonstration at Whitehall at which more than 100 people would be arrested." Thomas also appeared to back protesters in Belfast following disorder in the city sparked by a knife attack allegedly carried out by a Sudanese-born man. Earlier this year he worked alongside Raise The Colours co-founder Ryan Bridge and was one of 10 extremists banned from France in January, with French authorities saying at the time: “Our rule of law is non-negotiable. Violent and hate-inciting tactics have no place in our territory.” However, Thomas and Bridge later reportedly fell out, with Hope Not Hate publishing exchanges between the pair, which the left-wing group claimed included violent threats and Thomas admitting to taking steroids. In the exchanges Thomas also appeared to refer to Tommy Robinson as a "liability" and a "loose cannon". Thomas, who has worked as a bricklayer and ran his own web design firm, reportedly said: “Move away from Tommy (Robinson), which at this point I believe is the right choice. That’s no disrespect to him, I love him to bits, but he’s not right for this.” In another message, he reportedly added: "I’ve told him straight, ‘you’re a liability, I wanna do it properly'. You don’t think I would say that to him?” In separate messages, Thomas allegedly said: “I’m about to walk into the gym, smashing it. I’ve taken my roids, I’ve taken my proteins, and I’m f****** ready to go.” In others he reportedly added: “I’m mad man, I’m a f****** loose cannon you silly c***. I run into groups of Muslims and f****** go for it. Do you think I give a f***? Because I don’t.” It does not f****** work with someone who is mentally unstable and doesn’t give a f***… You can tell how f****** unhinged I am right now. Are you going to come knock at my door? While my kids sleep?… Have I got to sleep with a knife under my pillow now? Stab you in the f****** eye?". Thomas set up Patriot Platform in June, vowing to “reclaim our borders, restore order and send a clear message: Britain belongs to the British”. He describes it as a “growing Christian patriotic army” and has claimed more than 40,000 people have signed up. He appears to have recruited a similar demographic of young men to Robinson's English Defence League, known as the EDL, but his troops so far appear to be far more organised and disciplined under Thomas' military-style leadership. Thomas has said he wants “discipline” over “the drinkers” and “the violence” and has claimed to have “handpicked” his group of activists for “quality over quantity”, according to the campaign group Hope Not Hate, which has been monitoring Patriot Platform. He has described his members as "working-class men who are bricklayers, roofers and carpenters who build the house you live in, the roads you drive on". But he has not commented on reports of police officers being injured and vehicles damaged at Sunday's protest in Portsmouth, or an investigation by Hope not Hate, which found that among his hand-picked supporters were men with criminal histories, including convictions for violence against women. In January 2019, after the Mirror exposed his part in so-called yellow vest protests and his criminal past, Thomas said: "What we stand for is to make sure our children grow up in a society that is not full of hatred. I've got no problem with legal immigration if we are helping people from war torn countries, like we did with the Jews in World War Two. "But people are leaving their own countries just to have the benefits of our country. UKIP is the future. We are not racist. My girlfriend's dad comes from Iran. Throughout our movement we have black people, Sikhs, Muslims. I am not racist. I have lots of Muslim friends. I have no problem with them." Thomas also claimed at the time he had turned his life around, telling us: "When I went to prison I was away from my children. I took what I was given, I accepted what I did was wrong. I came out and all I did was make sure I bettered myself, I go to church every week. I support Tommy. I'm doing what's right for me to have karma for the future. I did wrong, I've changed my life around and now I'm doing good."