Restore Britain: Can Farage be outflanked by a revolt on the far-right?

“Reform is now a left-wing party,” declared the Spectator’s Ross Clark last year, arguing that Nigel Farage’s party had drifted towards economically centre-left positions and a more interventionist state. In Clark’s view, Reform was filling the political space abandoned by Labour as it marched towards social liberalism and metropolitan centrism.

For most of us, Reform still sits firmly on the hard right of British politics. Yet, as Clark rightly acknowledged, politics is always relative. In places like Great Yarmouth, a deprived seaside constituency where Brexit sentiment runs deep and anti-establishment politics flourish, Reform can appear almost moderate compared with the forces emerging to its right.

That is the political space Rupert Lowe is attempting to occupy with Restore Britain, a breakaway movement positioned not merely as an alternative to Reform UK, but as a direct challenge to Nigel Farage’s dominance of the populist right.

From Reform MP to rebel leader

The former chairman of Southampton FC and ex-Brexit Party MEP was elected MP for Great Yarmouth in 2024 as a Reform UK candidate, but his relationship with the party leadership quickly deteriorated.

In early 2025, Lowe broke ranks by publicly praising Tommy Robinson and became embroiled in controversy over remarks made in Parliament. Tensions escalated further, when in an interview with the Daily Mail, Lowe described Reform as “a protest party led by the Messiah.” He also argued MPs should be paid around £250,000 annually while halving the size of the House of Commons, and branded the BBC “a cancer at the heart of Britain.”

Reform suspended Lowe in March 2025 after allegations emerged involving bullying within his parliamentary office and claims he had made verbal threats against party chairman Zia Yusuf. Farage reportedly described Lowe’s conduct in private messages as “disgusting” and “contemptible.” Lowe denied all allegations and no criminal charges followed, but the rupture with Reform was irreversible.

Months later, Lowe launched Restore Britain, a party positioned explicitly to the right of Reform.

Ethnonationalism and mass deportation

Restore Britain presents itself as a movement for low taxes, small government and ‘secure borders.’ However, its platform is defined by hardline nationalism and anti-immigration policies. It wants to ban the burka, halal and kosher slaughter, and “strengthen the teaching of our Christian heritage within national curriculum history modules.” It wants to “defund the BBC,” have “net negative immigration,” and use “deliberately austere” tent camps to house asylum seekers.

Its most controversial intervention came with the publication of a 105-page document named ‘Mass Deportations: Legitimacy, Legality, and Logistics,’ which argues asylum and humanitarian protections granted to people who entered Britain illegally within the previous decade should be rescinded and those individuals deported.

This extreme anti-immigration drive seems to be touching a nerve, as the party claims to have amassed 130,000 members, a figure that, if accurate, would rival Conservative Party membership and dwarf the peak memberships of organisations such as the British National Party and the National Front.

A magnet for the fascist fringe

And Restore’s rise has coincided with vocal enthusiasm from figures associated with Britain’s neo-fascist movements.

Investigations by Hope Not Hate have documented former activists linked to overtly neo-Nazi organisations attending Restore events and joining the movement. One former member of the fascist Homeland Party reportedly claimed that “everyone” he spoke to in that organisation had signed up to Restore.

The party has also received praise from prominent extremists. Neo-Nazi activist Steve Laws described Restore as the “best option” for achieving his political aims, while online extremist Sam Wilkes, better known as “Zoomer Historian,” called Lowe “a true hero” who was “normalising our talking points in parliament.” Leaders within Patriotic Alternative have similarly welcomed Lowe and Restore.

Restore Britain, it seems, is becoming an electoral vehicle for ideas long confined to the fringes of British politics.

Elon Musk and the international right

The party has also benefited from support abroad. Elon Musk publicly endorsed Restore after its launch, posting on X: “It will win. It must win. To save Britain.”

Musk urged users to “Join Rupert Lowe in Restore Britain, because he is the only one who will actually do it.”

Yet Musk’s interventions in British politics have been erratic and highly personalised, particularly regarding Farage. After previously backing Reform, Musk later criticised Farage as “weak sauce” and threw support behind rival hard-right projects, including Advance UK, launched by former Reform chairman Ben Habib on the same day Restore was launched. Musk’s endorsement of Restore therefore appeared driven by hostility toward Farage as well as ideological commitment.

Great Yarmouth: Revenge politics in action

Restore’s first electoral success came not under its own banner but through its local offshoot, Great Yarmouth First (GYF).

The group campaigned on local issues including housing developments, high street regeneration and coastal defences. But the contest was also shaped by Lowe’s determination to damage Reform UK electorally after his expulsion from the party and fall-out with Farage.

The strategy worked. GYF contested ten council seats and won all of them, taking seven from the Conservatives and two from Labour while helping deny Reform an outright majority on the council.

For Lowe, the result is proof that his political brand could survive independently of Farage. For Reform, it’s an indication that fragmentation on the populist right could become electorally costly.

“The volume and the seismic win that we achieved was a huge surprise to all of us,” said Jon Wedon, who is now leader of the council’s GYF group.

“[People] turned out in volumes, en masse, people that have never voted before – to endorse our approach.”

Beyond the fringe?

Following its success in Great Yarmouth, Restore is attempting to expand beyond Norfolk and now has its sights on Makerfield. This week, Lowe took to X to announce local businesswoman Rebecca Shepherd will be standing as Restore Britain’s candidate in the forthcoming by-election.

Clearly buoyed by early attention, Lowe later posted: “Ladbrokes have Restore Britain as third favourite in Makerfield ahead of the Greens, Tories and Lib Dems. Interesting.”

His confidence only appeared to grow. “Reading how the odds for Restore Britain in Makerfield have tumbled from 50/1 to 9/1 just over the weekend. Stunning progress,” he wrote. “I am becoming increasingly convinced that we can win Makerfield and deliver the biggest shock in British political history.”

Whether Restore can make meaningful national inroads remains to be seen. It’s not difficult to suspect that any early gains may owe as much to voter confusion with Reform UK as to genuine grassroots momentum. After the local elections, one nationalist-minded punter in a pub confidently told me: “Everything will be okay if Restore get in,” before adding: “We need Tommy Robinson as PM.”

At the moment, the various Reform breakaway movements appear at least as motivated by grievances against Nigel Farage as by any coherent attempt to establish a durable political force of their own.

In media terms, Restore remains largely confined to fringe conspiracy theory platforms, despite the brief burst of attention following its Great Yarmouth result. The party maintains close ties to Lotus Eaters, the multimedia platform founded by far-right influencer Carl Benjamin. The outlet has effectively acted as a promotional vehicle for the party, previously describing the project as its “battering ram.” Alongside Lowe, the young activists Charlie Downes and Harrison Pitt, Restore’s campaigns director and senior policy fellow respectively, regularly appear on the platform. Downes has previously argued that “what is desirable is an ethnically homogenous Christian Britain.”

There has also been intermittent encouragement from GB News. The broadcaster’s correspondent, Steven Edginton, was thanked for his “trusty friendship or helpful conversations” in the acknowledgements of the hardline policy paper ‘Mass Deportations: Legitimacy, Legality, and Logistics.’

Yet despite the online enthusiasm, mainstream political coverage still appears to view Restore as marginal. When it was confirmed that Andy Burnham would stand in the Makerfield by-election, Channel 4 News merely noted Restore’s participation in passing, alongside the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.

That perhaps says as much as anything else. Still, Britain’s fragmented electoral landscape can produce strange outcomes, and even a modest Restore vote share could complicate matters for Reform by siphoning off support from the same political constituency. If nothing else, that prospect may puncture some of Reform’s recent swagger, and British politics has rarely been short of surprises.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is author of Right-Wing Watch