Rupert Lowe will attempt to split the vote in ‘revenge’ for being thrown out of Reform UK, it has been claimed. Speaking to the Daily Expresso podcast the political commentator Carole Malone said that Mr Lowe had launched his new party out of “sheer spite” but was blasted by Mr Lowe who said he was “entirely uninterested” in what she had to say.
It comes just days after Mr Lowe, 68, the MP for Great Yarmouth, announced his new party ‘Restore Britain’ in a video broadcast from his farm. He said: “I have chosen to speak to you today from the farm, because places like this are what proper Britain is about. Hard work, responsibility, effort, duty, stewardship. This is the England I know, and this is the England I love.”
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But Express columnist Carole Malone said today he was only doing it to spite Nigel Farage, who had yesterday savaged the new party saying: “Does he have a profile on X? Yes he does. Is Elon [Musk] going to support him? Probably. But you see, when he stood up and said ‘we’ve got to consider the mass deportation of entire communities, including those born in the United Kingdom’, that just moves way beyond the point of reasonableness, decency, morality.”
Speaking to the Daily Expresso Ms Malone said that Mr Lowe “thought he was a big noise in Reform before Nigel fired him, and I think this is just his revenge. […] he has a very big following on twitter and he knows that come the election this will just split the Reform vote, a lot of people are going to vote for Rupert, not for Nigel.”
She suggested that Mr Lowe was “saying silly things” such as “that Restore Britain is polling at 10% at the moment” which she branded “tosh”. Polling conducted on behalf of the party last year showed that some 10% of Britons would consider voting for them, just 3% behind the Liberal Democrats. It is not uncommon for political parties to commission polls to assess the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Party insiders say the organisation now has more than seventy-thousand members, which is “more than the Liberal Democrats”. Recent reports show the membership of Ed Davey’s Lib Dems has collapsed to just 60,000. Yesterday the party also saw the defection of seven councillors, recently suspended from Reform, in Kent.
Farage and Lowe have come to blows (Image: Getty)
They included Maxine Forthergill, a Sevenoaks Councillor who stood for Reform in the 2024 general election for the Old Bexley and Sidcup seat where she came second. Robert Ford, Paul Thomas, Dean Burns, Isabella Kemp, Brian Black and Oliver Bradshaw complete the list of defectors – all having moved from Reform UK.
Two more councillors – Jack Goncalvez and Darren Rance – from Northamptonshire Council defected today. Mr Lowe said: “We are building a national grassroots presence, and there will be more news to come soon.”
It is understood that another raft of new defectors are expected to be unveiled later on today.
Mr Farage and Mr Lowe have come to blows in the past, after a public spat saw Mr Lowe ejected from the party to sit as an independent.