Rupert Lowe and Nigel Farage at war over Reform-Restore collaboration

The leaders of Restore Britain and Reform Britain are coming to blows of proposed collaboration between the two hard right parties.

The saga began with Rupert Lowe – the Restore leader – releasing a video calling for the two parties to cooperate. In his offer for collaboration, Lowe listed a series of conditions under which it could take place, including a promise to hold a referendum on the death penalty, a militant approach to deportations and a ban on ex-Tory ministers playing any role in a future cabinet.

Nigel Farage – the Reform leader – was asked about the video at a press conference today (3 August).

In his responses to journalists, Farage suggested that such a collaboration could be possible. Farage told reporters that he would approach it with a ‘potentially open mind’.

He went on to say “I did actually reach out back yesterday to him”, before adding, “I did say ‘look should we have a call’.”

Farage also said: “A conversation is different to a negotiation. I opened the door to that conversation yesterday, late morning, and at the moment I have not yet had a reply”, adding: “We will find out whether he genuinely wants to have talks – if he does then we will start to negotiate,”

However, elsewhere at the press conference, Farage questioned the sincerity of Lowe’s offer for collaboration. He told the press: “I haven’t heard back yet so I don’t know what the sincerity of this is.” He went on to say: “But it seemed to me that he was sort of more than anything putting out this gesture saying ‘look I am the good guy – Nigel’s the bad guy’. Well that is not the case”.

Lowe has since responded to Farage’s comments. And he wasn’t particularly positive. In a post on X which purportedly includes a message between the two party leaders, Lowe said: “I do not want to make private conversations public, but Farage has just done so at a national press conference.

“He just stated he said to me yesterday ‘Shall we have a call?’. Sadly, that is just a lie. Yesterday at 10.30 Nigel messaged me, saying the following three words. ‘Will call later’ – the evidence is below. I have received no call. Senior Reform figures then went public to rubbish my offer. “

Lowe continued by saying: “Yesterday’s offer was not one I wanted to make, trust me. I don’t particularly enjoy trying to work with people who attempted to put me in prison on false allegations. My house was raided by armed police because of them. I was willing, and still am, to put that aside to cooperate in order to save the country we all love.”

Looks like that cooperation is off to a good start…

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Right image credit: Owain Davies – Creative Commons