Rupert Lowe set to rake in as much money from divisive X posts as from his MP’s salary

Rupert Lowe, the leader of hard-right party Restore Britain, is on track to earn as much money from his divisive posts on X as he does from being an MP.

According to an analysis by the Guardian Lowe’s X income has surged, with the Restore Britain MP having made £932 an hour since the start of the year from his divisive posts.

In some of these controversial posts, Lowe has called for mass deportations and in another, he claimed travelling to parts of the North West of England was likely being transported to a foreign country.

According to the MPs’ register of financial interests, for 60 hours work, the equivalent of one and a half weeks’ full-time work, Lowe has received £55,923 from X since the start of this year. 

The Guardian has calculated that if Lowe’s average earnings for 2026 so far continue throughout the year, he would earn just over £93,000 – close to the current MPs’ £98,599 annual salary. 

He could easily exceed that figure if his recent higher earnings from the social platform persist.

The Guardian also found that Lowe’s total income from X since the 2024 general election has now surpassed £105,000, more than half of which he earned in the first eight months of this year.

Lowe has previously said he donates his net MP’s salary to charities and worthy causes in his constituency of Great Yarmouth.

Lowe’s posts get huge reach on X. For example, over the weekend, he posted a tweet saying that a migrant could read 10,000 Home Office pamphlets about ‘integrating’ in the UK, and he would still want them deported.

He said: “They broke into our country – they are not welcome here, and they all need to be removed.”

The post got 203,000 views, 29,000 likes and 3,600 reposts.

Ambrose Pym, a researcher covering the far right and technology who analysed Lowe’s rising X earnings, told The Guardian that the extent to which Elon Musk is boosting Lowe is going underreported.

“We tend to treat a politician’s online reach and their income as two separate stories, but for Rupert Lowe they’re part of the same mechanism.

“The more his content is seen, the more X pays him for it.”

Pym added: “Scrutiny is rightly falling on other sources of foreign money in British politics. However, a US-based billionaire simultaneously paying and boosting an ideologically aligned British politician through his own platform is going strikingly under-reported. X’s financial and reach incentive structure rewards division and is shaping British politics with almost none of the scrutiny it deserves.”

Asked about his accelerating X earnings, Lowe told the Guardian: “If I wanted to make money, I would not be in politics. I donate my entire net MP salary to local charities in my constituency – being a politician is the most expensive job I’ve ever had.”

Lowe’s comment echoes claims that Nigel Farage made in 2017, saying he was “skint” and that “there is no money in politics”.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward