LONDON — Nigel Farage was once a political outsider. Other insurgents now want to claim that crown.
The Reform UK leader is plotting a major shake-up of British politics, aiming to build on local election successes and win national power for his populist right-wing party in 2029.
But as he tacks to the left to try and win over the wider British public, Farage is gaining noisy detractors on the right.
Back in June, Rupert Lowe launched the Restore Britain movement. A prolific X user who has caught the eye of Elon Musk, Lowe was elected as a Reform UK member of parliament last July but fell out spectacularly with Farage earlier this year.
Now an independent MP on the self-declared Commons “reject bench,” Lowe has used his lone voice to advance radical right-wing policies. Restore Britain is not a political party — but it thinks it can use its niche and outsized social media presence to force policy changes from the other main outfits.
“The ultimate purpose of Restore Britain is to act as a center of gravity for those people who are concerned about the direction of the country,” says Charlie Downes, Restore Britain’s campaigns director, in an interview.
But others question whether there is really much space in British politics to the right of Farage — and see a worrying normalization of once-fringe ideas.
Immigration outrage
On opposition to migration, Restore Britain goes much further than Farage.
Lowe has backed the radical move of deporting all illegal migrants — a policy Farage himself has described as a “political impossibility” — which includes those on small boats crossing the English Channel.
“The idea that you can just bring people in from anywhere in the world and that it will just be fine has been shown to be a fantasy,” argued Downes.
Yet while immigration is undoubtedly a top concern for the British public, that doesn’t necessarily translate into backing for Restore’s more hardline approach.
“They probably are going further than the median voter” on immigration, says Chris Hopkins, political research director at pollster Savanta. But he adds: “It doesn’t feel like the discourse from the Conservative Party and Reform UK needs Restore Britain to shift the discourse any further to the right. It already feels pretty crowded on the right.”
It’s not just on migration where Restore Britain wants to make an impact.
“Low tax, small state, slash immigration, protect British culture, restore Christian principles, carpet-bomb the cancer of wokery, fight lawfare, empower individual enterprise, and plenty more,” the outfit promised in its launch post — with “substance, detail, [and] a plan” to follow.
On X it has called for the reintroduction of capital punishment, the legalization of pepper spray possession, and has backed the right to use “reasonable force” in self-defense of Brit’s homes. Just last week, Lowe leapt on an apparent split over gender in Farage’s law and order team to post a series of digs at his old party.
In the past year, Farage has notably tilted some of his policies — including nationalization of key industries and support for axing the two-child cap on social security payments — leftwards as he tries to target disillusioned Labour voters.
That’s potentially opened up space for parties that marry full-blooded social and economic conservativism to steal a march. Hopkins, the pollster, cautioned against that. “They’re fighting a losing battle,” he said of Restore Britain. “It feels at the minute that Reform UK have such momentum that they need to be left to get on with it.”
Paradise lost
While Restore Britain has no plans to run candidates as a traditional political party (Downes claims Lowe would have found himself “more restricted” and “viewed as an electoral rival” had it moved in that direction) the outfit is bullish about its chances of shaping the U.K. political debate, particularly online.
Lowe has so far promoted petitions objecting to clampdowns on social media posts, and demanding the collection of data on the “nationality, ethnicity, immigration status and religion of child sexual offenders.”
Both exceeded 100,000 signatures, meaning they’ll be considered for debate in the U.K parliament. “We’re using the tools that we have at our disposal,” Downes says. Some 17 other MPs (including 11 Conservatives) signed Lowe’s early day motion (EDM) — a largely symbolic way of drawing political attention to an issue which has hardly any chance of getting debated in parliament — on deporting illegal migrants, while nine other MPs expressed concern about non-violent individuals imprisoned for riots that swept the U.K. last summer.
Though the numbers are relatively small and EDMs are little more than a chance to sound off, Restore believe it’s fighting a step-by-step battle to normalize the previously unthinkable in SW1.
“What we’re doing is seeking to unite the right around these ideas, these principles, these policies,” says Downes. “We want issues to be the center of gravity … rather than personalities and parties.”
Despite just a minority of the U.K. population using X, Downes argues that the presence of politicians, journalists and activists on the platform — where Restore is racking up views — mean it’s not to be ignored. “You’ll see a trickle down effect where eventually our talking points inevitably end up entering mainstream discourse,” he predicts.
Musk, the tech mogul who owns X, appeared to endorse Restore Britain by responding to the launch tweet with two Union Jack flag emojis — a big social media boost for such a small outfit.
Some see Restore as a part of a general rightward trend typified by Donald Trump’s MAGA takeover of the Republican Party in the United States and the success of nationalist parties in key parts of continental Europe.
In this view, Farage’s success may have opened the door to even more radical forces. “We’ve observed a normalization of politics that are no longer part of a conservative right-wing realm,” says King’s College London professor Georgios Samaras, who specializes in researching right-wing politics. “It’s trying to capitalize on the hype that Reform UK has achieved and try to fit in somewhere in the far-right realm.”
Samaras highlighted how Brexit began as a policy before consuming a mainstream party — and warns Restore Britain could follow that model. “Lowe is testing the waters right now,” says Samaras. “He has the voice and also a very powerful far-right audience that is following him on Twitter.”
“What they’re trying to do is grab Westminster’s attention,” says Hopkins.
But he says it is still hard to see how Lowe could really overshadow Reform. “You can’t out Farage-Farage.”
Meet the political movement that’s too right wing for Nigel Farage
Source: Viral Showbiz Pinay
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