At the first bump in the road, Restore Britain’s wheels threaten to fall off. As a new row about racial nationalism erupts, we survey the shifts and rifts within Rupert Lowe’s new party
Since launching as a party in February, Restore Britain has grown at an unprecedented rate. Promising to deport “millions”, the party has drawn in reactionary ex-Reform UK members through to notorious fascists. “We are inevitable,” remarked spokesman Charlie Downes, as the party purportedly surpassed 120,000 members in March.
However, Restore’s first disappointment at the polls has brought this momentum to a shuddering halt. Last month, the party bussed in hundreds of activists to Makerfield for the by-election campaign (including fascists and neo-Nazis), with online cheerleaders giddily predicting a vote share of at least 20%.
The deflating final tally of 3,111 votes (6.8%) caused party YouTuber Connor Tomlinson to gloomily observe that it is “possible that more Restore canvassers were sent to the constituency than votes gained”.
The disappointment has compounded existing tensions, which spilled into online histrionics last week. This fresh meltdown was triggered by Lowe himself, after he told podcaster Bret Weinstein: “I detest far right ethnonationalist or neo-Nazism.” He later claimed that he has “no problem” with a “multicultural society” if “people integrate”.
Much wailing from the party’s fascist faction ensued. Until now, their anger had mostly swirled around Alistair Harrison, Lowe’s chief of staff and parliamentary assistant. Harrison was blamed for the appointment of a disgraced ex-Tory MP to run the Makerfield campaign, and for disinviting the open ethnonationalist Saskia Teague to speak at a party event in May (Downes publicly apologised to Teague).
Days after its launch, we highlighted the central faultline running through Restore. The party’s vagueness and mixed messaging around key policy areas, especially racial nationalism, has broadened its appeal across the right, but also left the membership divided over fundamental issues. Questions of whether “non-white” people can be British, the scale of mass deportations and the acceptability of antisemitism are particular sticking points.
So far, this fragile coalition has been held together by Lowe’s popularity, which he has largely cultivated by dehumanising asylum seekers on X. However, suspicion has spread among his followers that he does not run his own social media accounts, and in fact is disastrously out of step with large chunks of his own party. Restore claims to represent “the British people”, yet cannot agree on what “Britishness” is.
The young radicals around Lowe – chiefly Charlie Downes, policy head Harrison Pitt and dogsbody Lewis Brackpool – could scarcely do more to signal their ethnonationalist positions, short of directly using the term. In Downes’s words, “Restore Britain believe that Britain is a people defined by indigenous British ancestry and Christian faith”, and “what is desirable is an ethnically homogenous Christian Britain”.
Downes also claims that the party is “in favour of reversing mass legal immigration”. This is despite Lowe telling The Telegraph last year: “I have never said we should deport people who are here legally. That’s not something I think we should be talking about.”
There are further divergences. Lowe, a former City trader, ex-Tory and self-described “individualist”, has imbibed the radical free market ideology of Ayn Rand, telling Michael Gove last year that her work “probably embod[ies] everything that I believe in”.
Downes, on the other hand, is strongly critical of individualism and says he does not believe in the free market, adding: “I do not believe in ‘capitalism.’” He even claimed he would rather live in poverty than to accept economic migrants into Britain. Quite where Restore stands on the economy is anyone’s guess.
Now, mere months after its launch, the void where solid ideological foundations should lie threatens to swallow the party.
As we have reported, swathes of fascists and neo-Nazis have flooded into Restore, including figures associated with Combat 18, Patriotic Alternative, Blood & Honour, the Active Club network and more. We have also previously revealed that Steve Laws – who campaigns for the ethnic cleansing of all those with “non-white” heritage from the country – claims to have the support of, and “daily” contact with, members of Restore’s top team.
The failure of Downes and co to, as they put it, “police the membership” appears calculated. The maxim “don’t punch right” holds that extremists can act as a vanguard, clearing rhetorical space for the party to move into. They also function as a pressure block to ensure the party’s radical direction. So far, Laws and his comrades have abused of ethnic minority members, tried to force Alistair Harrison from the party and, following Lowe’s recent comments, are now campaigning for Downes to be installed as deputy leader.
The Restore top brass – who are themselves largely social media influencers, with little experience of running a party – have attempted to placate the hardliners. Pitt explained away Lowe’s comments last week:
“When Rupert says he ‘detests ethnonationalism’, he pictures brownshirts smashing up businesses. He does not picture those among our public-spirited supporters and activists who choose to identify with that term […] I can assure you, Rupert wants to live to see mass migration reversed and demographic security achieved for the native peoples of Britain.”
However, pandering to online extremists is a doomed strategy. Overt racists and antisemites like Laws, his sidekick Sam Wilkes (AKA Zoomer Historian) and their followers have already proven themselves unfit for party politics, having facilitated the collapse of the fascist Homeland Party last year. Their demands for ideological purity will never be satisfied, and they will attack the party at any perceived deviation.
Association with neo-Nazis is also radioactive to the electorate, a fact that seemingly escapes party strategists. In May, Maria Bowtell – Restore’s head of local government – intervened to block the ejection of James Munro, a neo-Nazi who had been exposed by HOPE not hate. Bowtell’s public intervention resulted in a slew of negative attention, with an image of the Hitler saluting activist appearing across the right-wing press. These images will hardly improve Restore’s chances of winning the 2029 general election, as is Lowe’s express aim.
At present, the figureheads of Restore’s fascist faction remain to “fight for the direction of the party”, in Laws’s words. “Downes is the spokesman, Pitt is head of policy and Brackpool does the vetting. Most of the most important roles are held by people we know,” wrote Wilkes. Some view Lowe as a means to an end, a launchpad to establish a party that Downes et al. will eventually inherit.
Surprisingly, the most notable figure to extricate himself following Lowe’s comments is Connor Tomlinson, a former staff host at Lotus Eaters, Restore’s unofficial media arm.
Only last month, Tomlinson – who counted Downes, Pitt and Brackpool as groomsmen at his wedding – was breathlessly telling his supporters “We are going to win”, following a handful of council victories in Great Yarmouth, Lowe’s constituency.
However, his tune has recently changed. Last week, he claimed that “structural problems, weak candidates, and blasé decision-making has stalled, possibly squandered” Restore’s opportunity to challenge Reform at the polls, and that the party may have “served its purpose” as a pressure group.
Tomlinson’s change of heart underlines the fickleness of the online right. Just weeks ago, Restore was celebrating ten council wins like the dawn of a glorious future. Now, a series of strategic blunders have dented this optimism.
Public mudslinging has subsided over the weekend, and Restore remains dangerous. However, the rift will inevitably reopen. At some stage, the party will have to decide whether it is a civic nationalist or ethnonationalist outfit; it cannot be both.
This will pose its own dangers. Restore has created large new activist networks, which could pave the way for even more radical and dangerous offshoots. One way or another, the party may have an enduring influence on the wider far right.
Restore Britain: More fascists in Makerfield
EXPOSED: Militant neo-Nazis in Restore Britain, as leading party figure backs fascist activist
Makerfield campaign reveals deepening fascist links in Restore Britain
Restore Britain: A new home for old fascists, part 1
Restore Britain: A new home for old fascists, part 2
CASE FILE: Rupert Lowe and Restore Britain
Steve Laws: Ethnic cleansing extremist claims “daily” contact with Restore Britain top team
The company you keep: The extremists flocking to Restore Britain
Prefer to listen? Click the play button to hear the audio version. Harry Shukman Reform UK is staffed by oddballs and enigmas, but none odder…
