Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Politics Explained

How does Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain differ from Reform UK?

As the former Reform MP launches a new political movement, Sean O’Grady examines the spate of right-wing parties that have sprung up and asks if there is room for one more in what is already a crowded field

Monday 30 June 2025 19:04 BST
Comments
Reform UK mayor says Bob Vylan’s chants show ‘two-tier justice’

Just when you thought politics couldn’t fragment any further, along come two new political movements on the far right, both spawned from Reform UK like replicating amoebae.

The very newest is “Restore Britain”, which proclaims it is not a party but a “movement”. That one is led by former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe. The other is the creation of former Reform UK deputy leader Ben Habib, and is a party, albeit a slightly peculiar one. Habib was sacked from his Reform role by Nigel Farage after the general election last year, and left what he called “the cult” soon afterwards.

Although Reform UK is still arguably the main force on the right of British politics, with a comfortable polling lead over the Conservatives, it has many smaller competitors, and has itself – including in its previous incarnations (Ukip, Brexit Party) – shown a distinct tendency to splinter at the first sign of success. After all, its chair, Zia Yusuf, recently resigned and un-resigned in one day. They’re a volatile lot.

Hasn’t Habib got a party already?

Well, he did have. “Integrity” was its name. It actually never registered with the Electoral Commission, and as a corporate entity it has now been renamed Advance UK Party Limited, according to the records at Companies House.

Integrity Party Limited was originally incorporated on 19 November 2024. Its directors were Habib himself; Christian Russell (resigned 11 April 2025); Richard Shaw (also resigned on 11 April); and Mohammad Sohail (resigned 13 December 2024). So Habib is apparently now its sole director, and he is the only “person with significant control”, holding, directly or indirectly, 75 per cent or more of the shares in the company.

So is it democratic?

That remains to be seen. It’s curious, because one of the reasons Habib gave for leaving Reform UK was the personal control Farage exerted on Reform UK Limited – but this has now altered significantly (albeit Farage would still be practically impossible for the membership to depose).

For what it’s worth, Advance UK seems to have an extremely complex, opaque and unworkable system of governance, as part private company and part conventional political party.

So: the board of directors (currently just Habib) approves policy and “oversees” what is referred to as “the leadership”, while party members elect “the college”, which elects the leader and can remove him or her. (Habib is officially “leader in waiting”.) The college is overseen by its chair, who is also the chair of the board of directors (Habib, presumably).

It’s almost as if Habib deliberately created a structure guaranteed to create internal friction and splits because he enjoys a ruckus, and likes things done his way or not at all. Not unlike Farage, Yusuf, Lee Anderson, and Lowe, in fact.

Is it extremist?

Quite possibly. Habib got into some bother last year when, as a Reform UK spokesperson, he advocated leaving migrants to drown in the sea if they refused the offer of a boat that would return them to France: “We could, as an idea, provide them with another dinghy into which to climb and then go back to France. If they choose to scupper that dinghy, then yes, they have to suffer the consequences of their actions.”

Challenged by the Talk TV host Julia Hartley-Brewer on whether he would leave them to die, he added: “Absolutely: they cannot be infantalised to the point that we become hostage to fortune.” Sadly, some agree with him.

It’s a crowded field, though?

Indeed, as the far-right fringe tends to be (mirroring the far left, as it happens). There’s also the remains of Ukip, now run militantly by street politician Nick Tenconi (after the previous leader defected to Reform); Reclaim, led by Laurence Fox, though it’s electorally inactive; and the “SDP”, which it’s fair to say is unrecognisable to those who recall the 1981 Roy Jenkins version. There’s also the Heritage Party, English Democrats, BNP and Britain First. Plus others.

Could it work?

Maybe if it got massive financial support from Elon Musk – he's no fan of Farage, and favours Rupert Lowe, but Lowe is not leading Advance UK.

What of Rupert Lowe and Restore Britain?

Aside from the Farage factor, an even more extreme “mass deportation” stance, and an obsession with grooming gangs, it is hard to see how Restore Britain really differs that much from Reform UK, Advance UK, or various of the other organisations. In fact, eccentric as ever – or maybe cunningly – Lowe has thrown his movement open to people in any party “if they share our values and want to be part of a bottom-up movement that has the potential to transform Britain”.

Indeed, Habib, on the day he launched his own party, also joined Restore Britain; Lowe, however, shows no sign of joining Advance UK. Habib claims to be in constant touch with the maverick anti-burqa MP.

Will they split the right-wing vote?

Not to any noticeable degree. Advance, Ukip, Reclaim and the others will probably continue to have negligible electoral impact, generally lacking resources, mass membership, well-known personalities, local organisations, sympathetic coverage in the right-wing press, or their own television station – all advantages enjoyed by Reform UK, which of course also now has a significant body of elected representatives (though these are inexperienced at best).

The scrap between the Conservatives and Reform remains the more significant one, bearing in mind that closer links between those two would also alienate moderate pro-Europe Tories who would then back the Lib Dems or Labour instead, basically out of fear and loathing of Farage. “Unite the right” sounds appealing, but it would mean the end of the Tories, so it won’t happen at national level. Under first-past-the-post, the next election could be quite chaotic.

Anyone else on the extreme-right populist bandwagon?

The cynically minded might add Keir Starmer and the Labour Party, who, at least in their “island of strangers” moments, seem to have the attitude that “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”. Joking aside, some centre-left and centre-right parties in Europe have become increasingly hardline on immigration, albeit none want to leave the EU. They’re not that mad.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in