The Company You Keep: The Extremists Flocking to Restore Britain 

HOPE not hate explores the ethnonationalists who have lined up behind Restore Britain. When will leader Rupert Lowe disavow his party’s fascist fanbase?

Restore Britain declared party status at the perfect moment. Between a growing appetite for ethnonationalism on the right and the mainstreaming of remigration narratives, Reform UK is simply too vanilla for many extremists’ political tastes. Restore has instantly filled the gap to the right of Reform that UKIP, Britain First and a dozen microparties have been clawing to occupy for years.

Its leader, Rupert Lowe MP, promises the return of good old-fashioned England. However, flanked by a team of young radicals, he has struggled to escape accusations of racism, even from the right. The tidal wave of fascists, neo-Nazis and other extremists who have come out in favour of him and his party have certainly not helped this perception. 

HOPE not hate recently exposed the relationship between Steve Laws and Lowe’s party. Laws, who is one of the most extreme front-facing activists in his ideological subsector, views Restore as the best vehicle through which to realise ethnic cleansing. Worryingly, the extremist has claimed to have “daily” contact with Restore’s top team and encouraged door-to-door canvassing for the party.

While Lowe cannot control who supports his party, he has a responsibility to disavow the extremists who claim to have signed up as members or voice support on large public platforms. So far, he has remained silent, raising important questions: 

Why do these extreme figures see Lowe as their man?

Why has Lowe not disavowed them?

And what will Restore’s response be if some of these individuals attempt to stand as branch organisers and candidates?

Neo-Nazis

Perhaps most concerning is the support expressed by Aryan Front, a militant neo-Nazi group which splintered from White Vanguard last December. The group, which promises “Racial Holy War”, recently burned Islamic and Jewish literature on a swastika altar while throwing Hitler salutes. In the weeks following Restore’s establishment as a political party, Aryan Front said: “if you have the slightest bit of racial loyalty you will vote Restore.” Days later, the group echoed a view shared by many neo-Nazis: Restore is “going to be normalising more of our talking points… take the win where you can get the win”. 

Similarly, neo-Nazi Ryan Ferguson has claimed that Restore is the UK’s “only hope”. Ferguson also believes that Restore represents a replacement for an ideologically weak Reform, referring to Reform as a “base for foreigners” and claiming that Restore’s arrival has signalled “game over” for Farage.

Other supporters include Michael Wright (AKA Morgoth), a fascist social media influencer whose work was referenced by white-supremacist terrorist Dylann Roof. Sam Wilkes (AKA Zoomer Historian), has also voiced support for Restore despite being openly pro-Nazi. 

None of this is to say that Restore itself is supportive of views as extreme as these, but rather to highlight the fact that some neo-Nazis view Restore as a possible route through which their ideas could be realised. At the very least, it should raise alarm for Restore members that their party is appearing attractive to fascists. 

Ethnonationalists

In addition, a significantly larger group of ethnonationalists claim to have become members of Restore. 

For instance, one ex-member of the fascist Homeland Party told HOPE not hate last summer that “Everyone I spoke to in Homeland claimed to have signed up for Restore membership” when it was still a pressure group.

This includes Callum Barker, best known for his role in the anti-migrant campaign in Epping last year. Barker is also a former member of Patriotic Alternative, the UK’s largest neo-Nazi group, and has posed with a copy of the manifesto of Ted Kaczynski (AKA The Unabomber), the American terrorist who murdered three people and maimed many more in a 17-year bombing campaign. “It’s time for all boots on the ground for Restore Britain”, wrote Barker, following the party’s announcement to field candidates in Great Yarmouth this May.

Barker’s associates “Angloid” and Hugh Anthony, both young ethnonationalists campaigning for an all-white Britain, are also now involved in Restore. Angloid rose to infamy last year as part of Raise the Colours, joining the group on trips to Calais to harass people seeking asylum and the charity workers supporting them. He was later banned from entering France. Anthony, on the other hand, has argued aggressively against interracial marriage and promotes the “remigration” of non-white people living in England – a policy he extends he extends to British Jews. 

The leaders of Britain First, another far-right political party, have agreed to defer to Restore in areas where it chooses to field candidates. Britain First seems to be coming round to the reality that it has been electorally irrelevant for years, passing the baton onto Restore and focussing instead on its street networks. 

Its leaders Paul Golding and Ashlea Simon have become significantly more overt in their ethnonationalism in the past year. They have argued that Britishness is defined by whiteness and Christianity, rhetoric similar to Restore’s spokesman Charlie Downes’ claim that Britishness is defined by “indigenous British ancestry and Christian faith”. Considering the similarities, it’s no wonder that Britain First have acknowledged that having both on a ballot paper would be splitting the vote. 

Where is Lowe? 

When Restore officials like Downes embrace racialised immigration discourse, they normalise ideas about racial identity traditionally associated with the fascist fringe. As a result, ethnonationalists and neo-Nazis can view Restore as a vehicle through which their talking points can be mainstreamed. 

The extremists featured here all have significant platforms, with some sway within the far-right sphere; Lowe cannot dismiss these supporters as a handful of irrelevant odd-balls. As time goes on, they will become more and more difficult to ignore, particularly if they weave themselves into the fabric of the organisation. In turn, Lowe faces a decision: reject the fascists decisively, or allow himself to be associated with them.