Two Reform councillors have defected to the extreme right-wing party Restore Britain today (26 June).
Dan Glover and Rob Aitkenhead were both elected in Warwickshire in the 2025 local elections under the Reform banner. They’ve now joined Restore barely a year after being elected.
Announcing their defections, Restore’s leader Rupert Lowe said they were ‘patriots who want the best for their community’.
Glover and Atikenhead’s defection is just the latest in a series of debacles besetting the Reform-run Warwickshire County Council. Reform has now lost four councillors since the 2025 election, with two going independent. Barely a month after taking control of the council last May, the Reform council leader Rob Howard resigned from the post. And in March this year, the now leader of the council George Finch narrowly survived a vote of no confidence by a single vote.
Despite these two defections, Restore remains a fringe political party. Currently, it has fewer than 40 councillors across the UK. That’s compared to more than 1,300 for the Greens and more than 2,300 for Reform.
However, in recent months Restore has emerged as a potential threat to Nigel Farage’s Reform. In the Makerfield by-election, Restore won 7 per cent of the vote. If they were to secure that level of support in other constituencies across the country at the next general election, they could potentially prevent Reform from winning dozens of seats by splitting the right-wing vote.
Similarly, if more Reform councillors begin to defect, Farage’s party could see itself losing influence in local government and even losing control of councils it currently runs.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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