HOPE not hate exposes yet more fascists within Restore Britain, this time campaigning in Greater Manchester ahead of the mayoral election on Thursday. This includes current and former members of the neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative, a leading ex-BNP activist and a Nazi-saluting skinhead
It is no longer a secret that Restore Britain, the new party led by Rupert Lowe MP, harbours ethnonationalists, neo-Nazis and other extremists.
HOPE not hate has already revealed members of Patriotic Alternative, the UK’s leading neo-Nazi group, within Restore, alongside figures associated with the British National Party (BNP) and its offshoots, Blood & Honour, the Active Club network and more.
Most recently, we exposed members of Remigration Now – an extreme pro-ethnic cleansing group – embedded in Restore, including some in positions of local influence. Steve Laws, leader of Remigration Now and the figurehead of the party’s fascist faction, has privately boasted of having “daily” contact with members of the Restore top team.
Rupert Lowe claims to “detest far right ethnonationalist or neo-Nazism”. However, this does not seem to have deterred the extreme figures campaigning for Restore candidate Marlon West in the Manchester mayoral race this Thursday.
Elliot Lowe, based in Wigan, was photographed with Rupert Lowe (no relation) as he arrived in town to campaign last Friday. Elliot Lowe has previously posted a photo of himself doing a Nazi salute:
He later claimed that the picture was “posted as a joke” and that he is “NOT a neo-nazi”. However, Elliot Lowe is immersed in the Oi! punk skinhead scene, including acting as security for Street Sounds Promotions (SSP), Britain’s most active promoter of extreme-right music. SSP, which has ties to the broader Blood & Honour network, is run by the neo-Nazi Chad Charles, an associate of Elliot Lowe’s.
Elliot Lowe also co-organised an anti-migrant protest in Leigh last October. He is now an active member of Restore, repeatedly leafletting for the party on several occasions.
Pictured alongside Rupert Lowe (and Elliot Lowe) last Friday was Craig Buckley, a key local activist for Patriotic Alternative (PA), the UK’s main neo-Nazi group. We previously exposed Buckley’s involvement in Restore in May, when he was campaigning for the party in the run up to the Makerfield by-election in June.
Buckley also ran for the English Democrats in the 2024 general election, enlisting Peter Rushton, among the UK’s most notorious Holocaust deniers, to campaign with him. Buckley is also the nominal leader of the Identity Party, a PA front.
His fellow PA North West branch alumni, Gary Topping, was himself photographed alongside Marlon West earlier this month.
Topping, from Pendle, was an early member of the BNP’s Burnley branch. He went on to stand for the British Democrats, a BNP offshoot, in 2013 and 2015, before becoming PA’s Lancashire contact.
Topping has since thrown his lot in with Restore, attending a Pendle & Clitheroe branch meeting earlier this month.
Pictured alongside Topping was his ex-BNP comrade Steve Smith, the leader of the fascist group’s flagship Burnley branch. Under Smith, the BNP became the official opposition on Burnley council after exploiting racial grievances in majority-white neighbourhoods.
These successes have made Smith a role model to some on the extreme right, including the dwindling Homeland Party, which drew on his strategy in its own ill-fated electoral efforts.
This is despite Smith’s jailing in 2002 for six counts of electoral fraud, having forged signatures on election nomination forms. He has since claimed that “the only thing I regret is getting caught”.
Smith, who went on to join the National Front, has since leafletted on behalf of the British Democrats. Most recently, both Topping and Smith campaigned for Advance UK, the Reform UK splinter group that has since folded to support Restore.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. More extremists are turning up at Restore events, and we will expose them in coming weeks.
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…
