Founded by wedding DJ Jeremy Davis in August 2020, Little Boats was established, ostensibly, as an anti-migrant vigilante group to patrol the Kent coastline confronting migrants. The group previously referred to itself as a “flotilla” and was formerly aligned with Steve Laws, the “migrant hunter” turned fascist activist. Little Boats takes its name from the Little Ships of Dunkirk, hundreds of private boats that sailed across the Channel to rescue Allied forces stranded on Dunkirk beach during WWII.

Whilst it has claimed previously to have engaged in night patrols in the English Channel, today it is essentially a social media operation manned by Davis that shares generic anti-migrant and anti-Islam content. Its supporters regularly post about the supposed “invasion” of Britain.

On X/Twitter, Little Boats retains a fairly sizable presence, and in 2023 shared a map of migrant accommodation to be targeted for harassment. In August that year, the group appeared to change tack, as Davis suggested that “Quisling institutions” assisting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants would be targeted by Little Boats activists in a spree of direct action. In the end, the sum of this direct action amounted to blocking the telephone switchboard of an immigration law firm for an hour.

The group’s output dwindled further still in 2024, with seemingly nothing in the way of offline activity at all. Following the racist rioting of the summer, Davis joined much of the wider far right in labelling convicted rioters as victims of “two-tier policing”. He has also consistently and vociferously supported Israel’s invasion of Gaza.