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'It was intimidation and thuggery,' the Chief Secretary to the Treasury told GB News

Labour minister Emma Reynolds has declared protests in Portsmouth had “crossed the line” after a record-breaking mega dinghy launch was made.

Speaking to GB News, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury reacted to the unprecedented scenes, which saw hundreds of individuals descend on the area, with some attempting to block traffic.

Police carrying riot shields were deployed to form a blockade against the around 500 protestors who had arrived.

The demonstrators were on the scene to protest the processing of around 140 illegal migrants who had arrived on British shores, with social media videos showing crossers being taken on lifeboats to land where several coaches were parked.

The arrivals came as the French Coastguard confirmed to Britain's News Channel one dinghy had set off from a beach east of Cherbourg, making it the furthest distance ever attempted by small boat migrants.

The Cherbourg site was about 200 nautical miles from the traditional launch sites around Dunkirk and Calais.

Last night’s scenes in Portsmouth followed similar protests in Dover over small boat migrant arrivals over the weekend.

Responding to the demonstrations, the Government said it condemned the “intimidating and thuggish behaviour".

Asked about the Government's description, Ms Reynolds reiterated her party’s stance in the strongest terms.

“Some of the behaviour that we saw in Portsmouth and in Dover crossed the line,” she said.

“It was intimidation, it was thuggery,” the Labour minister insisted.

Nevertheless, Ms Reynolds stressed she believed in “people’s right to peaceful protest”.

She admitted there were also people with “legitimate concerns about immigration”, adding the Government was attempting to address them.

The Labour minister said Channel crossings were down 43 per cent compared with the same point last year, but acknowledged people smugglers were “shifting their tactics to the western French beaches”.

“We are cracking down on the criminal gangs,” she said, claiming more than 100 people-smuggling gangs had been disrupted over the past two years.

The minister also insisted the Government was tackling concerns over the asylum system, pointing to a fall in successful claims.

“Under the Conservative government, 77 per cent of asylum claims were successful,” she said.

“Under our government in the last two years, only 38 per cent have been successful.”

Ms Reynolds added the Government had “employed hundreds of additional caseworkers” and returned 80,000 people without a right to remain in the UK, which she described as a “ten-year record high”.

Speaking to the People's Channel from the protests yesterday, Reform councillor George Madgwick said: “People are worried, people are concerned, (and) people are not happy, and rightly so.

“It is a concern that this has come to Portsmouth, as this is now coming to different areas across the UK.

“Successive governments have let people down in this area and across the country. At the end of the day we've spent £1.2bn of taxpayers' money, sending it to France to stop this precise thing, and we've not managed to stop it.”

He described how coaches and medical services were blocked from entering Portsmouth port with one road on and off, and that news of the protest spread “very, very quickly” via social media.