OPINION – JONATHAN SAXTY: Voting Restore will only help Labour stay in power
Rupert Lowe has ‘lost control of party’, says one Restore’s critics (Image: PA)
Nigel Farage has warned “vote Restore, get Labour” as Rupert Lowe’s party split the patriotic Right vote in a recent by election and let Labour win by just two votes. The by-election for Dudley council in the West Midlands saw Labour defeat Reform by 874 votes to 872 with Restore’s 159 votes allowing Andy Burnham’s party to win. Reform leader Nigel Farage said in response: “The next election will be existential for Britain. I’ll deport everyone who is here illegally. Vote Restore, get Labour.” Perhaps the wake up call is beginning, however. The Telegraph reported on Sunday that Orla Minihane, Restore’s first female spokesman, had defected to Reform after encountering “deeply abusive” men at the top of Rupert Lowe’s party.
Courted by Restore as leader of a group aimed at protecting women from crimes by immigrants, Mihihane was subjected to dreadful abuse, including being called a “mudblood” due to being half Irish and told “women shouldn’t be involved in politics”. She told The Telegraph: “Rupert Lowe isn’t really in charge of Restore Britain. The day-to-day operations are run by politically voracious young men who are not just power mad, but deeply abusive. The tone set at all levels in the party is nothing short of toxic.”
She added: ” I don’t think Rupert Lowe is a bad or evil man. But I do think that some of the people he has running his party are. And I think that if he fails to clean house, he’ll be left with very little, very soon.”
Former Restore spokesperson Orla Minihane has left Rupert Lowe’s party (Image: Phil Harris / Mirror)
Mr Lowe, she claims, “stopped reaching out” and “the entire operation cut me off… for daring to suggest we also heed the women in this country who are not white”. Consequently, Minihane defected to Reform last month in part because of Nigel Farage’s response to a recent ITV documentary. The Reform leader’s decision to suspend some of his closest aides because of content in the documentary showed leadership that is lacking within Restore, she claimed.
Minihane wished “she hadn’t got involved with Restore Britain at all”. She added that until Restore “can show an element of professionalism like that and show to the world that you don’t want to be associated with nasty, thuggish extremists, the wider British public will never vote for you”.
Whether others follow her or not, the fact remains: Restore cannot win more than maybe one seat in Parliament and voting Restore will only succeed in helping Labour and maybe the Conservatives.
Restore voters need to wake up to the realisation they are collectively cutting their noses off to spite their faces. Restore is not even a pressure group. In fact, it merely enables Labour and the Conservatives to win more seats.
Little wonder Restore lost a key person to Reform. Farage’s party is the only one which a) can deliver the shock therapy patriotic Right-leaning voters want and b) actually has a chance of forming a government.