Press Briefing: Raise the Colours

Georgie Laming, Director of Campaigns at HOPE not hate said:

“We welcome the news that France has banned 10 far-right activists from entering the country. The Raise the Colours team may claim to be “safeguarding” the UK, but that’s far from reality. They have been taking part in very threatening behaviour, wrecking boats and harassing migrants, as well as the NGO workers who support them. At least some of the team were already detained by French police at the border on multiple previous occasions.”

With potential for further escalation expected for this weekend, there couldn’t be a more apt time to stop this harassment campaign.

HOPE not hate have been monitoring and reporting on the movements of Raise the Colours from the beginning, and we are pleased to see our work pay off.”

‘Raise the Colours’ is a Birmingham-based anti-migrant group founded by Ryan Bridge and Elliot Stanley. What began as a local flagging operation has over time developed into a more general anti-migrant campaign, focused on confronting asylum seekers attempting to cross the English Channel from France, and the NGOs that support them. 

In late 2025, Raise the Colours launched a recruitment drive intended to bring volunteer vigilantes from the UK to France. While there has since been a fallout between the leaders, this volunteer drive seems to be culminating in a day of action on Saturday 24th January, led by Danny Tommo’s faction. Volunteers have been invited to leave Dover for France by air, land and sea at around 1pm on 24th January. Tommo has also announced a UK based event in Dover on the same day, designed for women and those without passports. While plans remain vague, he has asked people to bring Dover “to a standstill” from 2pm.

Raise the Colours vs Operation Raise the Colours

Raise the Colours was founded in the context of the broader ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ movement (started by ex-EDL member Andrew Currien, AKA Andy Saxon), but is its own organised entity, functioning separately to the wider informal movement. Raise the Colours has its own website and runs a fundraising campaign to facilitate its members flagging activities, which now also contributes to funding their trips to France.

Raise the Colours activity in France should not be confused with the trips UKIP leader Nick Tenconi has also conducted in Calais this year. For more on Tenconi, read our recent profile and analysis of the UKIP manifesto. 

‘Operation Overlord’ I

While Elliot Stanley was heavily involved with the initial stages of the organisation, Bridge took a leading position as the group progressed from a flagging movement into its French operations. Stanley has not been seen in any of the group’s trips to Calais, his activism seemingly restricted to the UK. 

Bridge began travelling to France with Daniel Thomas AKA Danny Tommo to ‘expose’ asylum seekers and the NGOs they blame for facilitating mass immigration. ‘Operation Stop the Boats’ consisted of the team destroying dinghies, verbally harassing migrants, and chasing them down French beaches. They were joined by other activists in this period, namely ‘Angloid’ and Ross Childs. 

In mid-November, ‘Operation Overlord’ was launched, which involved the pair returning to the Calais coast for a more intensive period of activism. They filmed migrant camps with a drone; the footage was posted online, with Bridge claiming that the migrants “were not from the same civilisation that we’re from” and “they’re coming to exploit you and me”. 

Bridge and Thomas travelled back and forth between Calais and the UK before pushing on to Paris, in an attempt to find out more about how migrants travel through France. In Paris they asked black and brown men in migrant encampments where they were from, where they were planning on going, and who exactly was transporting them there. Bridge and Thomas were particularly fixated on the role of French NGOs in facilitating the movement of asylum seekers to the UK.

During shorter trips into Calais towards the end of the year, the two escalated their tactics and entered migrant camps on foot, confronting people about their intentions about coming to the UK, and NGO workers about their role. They also amassed more members, often arriving with a larger team (between four and eight people). In some situations they were met with a more hostile welcome, as footage showed them racing down a French beach to flee residents of a camp who had taken a dislike to their activities. 

The Raise the Colours team have repeatedly harassed NGO workers, filming their faces and posting them online, as well as accusing them of facilitating an “invasion” of the UK. The team has been detained by French police at the border on multiple occasions. Undeterred, they continued to visit Calais, wrecking boats and harassing asylum seekers, as well as the NGO workers who support them.

Operation Overlord II

In late December, RTC announced an expansion of the team to create patrols which would hit French beaches in January. They launched an application form for new volunteers, which they claimed to have over 15,000 responses to, and reported trying to find a venue to host a large number of people for in-person vetting. This vetting process was originally meant to take place on the 24th of January, but this was revised after the apparent high number of applicants. 

As January progressed, RTC’s social media became increasingly volatile towards NGOs who assist displaced people in France, specifically targeting their financial backgrounds. They also claimed to have found mobile phones belonging to migrants, and shared their contents online. 

French Ban and Fall Out

On the 14th of January 2026, French government officials announced a territory ban on 10 British far-right activists linked to Raise the Colours. On the same day, Danny Tommo left the organisation; while RTC initially claimed that he left on positive terms, each party began posting accusatory messages about the other, largely about financial mismanagement. There had also clearly been tactical disagreement, with Bridge and Stanley favouring a steadier, more controlled approach while Tommo wished to defy the French ban immediately.  

Bridge responded that this ban was a ‘blip’ and that the movement would persist, but has not announced any official plans for the future of Raise the Colours. He and Elliot Stanley appeared on GB news on the 14th of January, where Stanley refuted the claim that they had interrupted any police operations and claimed that they had found boats which were already destroyed in the sand dunes (despite multiple social media posts showing the team slashing dinghies). 

Tommo on the other hand, announced the next day that he would be holding a meeting in Dover on the 24th of January. The post asks attendees to bring baggage and passports. Tommo posted social media clips in the following days announcing plans to bring a group of people to France, in spite of the ban, to run British patrols across the beach and local towns. Current locations include the Gravelines beaches, and the coastline between Sangatte and Wissant. He claims this is in direct response to the French authorities ban on group members. On the subject of the ban, he stated in a video:

“Up to this point, no-one has mentioned my name and told me that I am banned from the territory of France, and until that point comes, I am not willing to accept that I am banned from France. So I will be entering France on the 24th.”

As it currently stands, Tommo’s operation is being referred to as ‘Operation Overlord’, while Stanley and Bridge’s Raise the Colours Operation has reverted to the title ‘Operation Stop the Boats’. 

Members:

Ryan Bridge

Ryan Bridge is a Birmingham-based anti-migrant activist, and founder of Raise the Colours. He is relatively new to the far-right ecosystem, emerging over the summer of 2025 as a leading flagging campaigner positioned against illegal immigration. However, he has a long history as a football hooligan, and previously received a three year match ban for violence. He has since embraced a broader anti-migrant rhetoric, filming content outside of hotels housing people seeking asylum and harassing residents. Bridge recently posted clips of migrants  at the French border, captioning the post: “When we win, these people will be sent back to third world shanty countries they come from.” While Bridge claims to be in support of a multicultural Britain, he has praised an ethnonationalist social media influencer called Angloid several times, describing him as a “True British Patriot”. The two have also worked together as part of Raise the Colours.

Elliot Stanley

Stanley co-founded Raise the Colours with Ryan Bridge. He has broadly kept himself out of the spotlight, allowing Bridge and Tommo to run Calais operations and appear in social media content. However, he does appear periodically in formal news interviews, mainly on GB News, and has stepped forward as a more public figure since the departure of Danny Tommo. 

Daniel Thomas (AKA Danny Tommo) – SINCE LEFT THE GROUP

While Daniel Thomas has since left the movement, he played an essential role in Raise the Colours, and continues to plan independently run trips to Calais. Thomas has been active in the far-right ecosystem as far back as 2018, acting as Tommy Robinson’s bodyguard. Last year, during the 2024 summer riots, he took to social media to encourage violence, stating that “every city needs to go up.” In 2017, Thomas was convicted of attempted kidnapping and served two years in prison. He was part of a gang who attempted to force a man out of his house at knifepoint over a drug dispute. He and Bridge began ‘Operation Stop the Boats’, where they destroyed dinghies on the coast of Calais in an attempt to prevent migrants from crossing the Channel. 

Angloid

‘Angloid’ is an 18-year-old ethnonationalist who regularly espouses the Great Replacement theory on X. He campaigns for remigration, and argues that “ethnic groups should have their own nations”. In November, Angloid posted a video from the group’s trip to Calais in which he gleefully declared he was “chasing fucking immigrants in the sea”. Ryan Bridge also posted footage from the same incident, shouting “you’re not welcome in our country” as he and his team ran down the beach.

Ross Childs (AKA Ross the Don)

Ross Childs is an anti-migrant activist who ran a flagging campaign in Lichfield. He has recently become active in the British far right, performing at Tommy Robinson’s recent Christmas carol event. Childs has made solo trips to Calais as an activist, but has joined forces with the Raise the Colours team to harass migrants and NGOs in France.

Notes to editors:

• Spokespeople from HOPE not hate are available on request.

Contact:  

hopenothate.org.uk | @hopenothate | [email protected] | 0207 952 1183 

HOPE not hate is the UK’s leading anti-fascist organisation. We build hope and counter the politics of hate through research, campaigning and community engagement. We focus on the organised far right, the communities who are susceptible to them, and the issues and policies which give rise to them.