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A well-known white supremacist linked to a neo-Nazi group flagged by the UK Government as a “serious concern” has been volunteering for Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain movement since last November, Byline Times can reveal.
Chris Mitchell, the former East of England organiser for the antisemitic far-right group Patriotic Alternative (PA) and a self-described “Nazi-Buddhist”, has been recruiting fellow ethno-nationalists to join Restore Britain since becoming a member of ‘Great Yarmouth First’ – Restore Britain’s flagship local organisation – last November.
His social media profiles have been used to promote his work delivering party leaflets. On Facebook, he has tagged Rupert Lowe in multiple posts, and Lowe has responded and praised him in the comments.
At an outdoor conference held by Great Yarmouth First in mid-February, Mitchell posed for a selfie with Lowe and shared the image on both his Facebook page and Telegram channel. Mitchell claimed he had asked Lowe whether his extreme nationalist views would be a problem and that Lowe told him they would not, as it was a matter of “free speech”. Byline Times reached out to Lowe to verify this claim, but he has not responded.
Lowe announced in February that he would register Restore Britain as a political party. On X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), the MP has declared that the word “racist” has “lost all meaning” and insisted there is “NOTHING neo-Nazi” about wanting the mass deportation of “illegal immigrants”.
The party’s stated policies include “low tax, small government, secure borders, national pride, Christian principles, free speech and direct democracy”.
The announcement has divided the right. Many who have backed Reform UK see Restore Britain as splitting the vote, while others – including several former Reform councillors – have joined Lowe. But the movement has also attracted several high-profile figures from the organised far right, who see Lowe as their best prospect for mainstreaming ethno-nationalist beliefs.
Mitchell’s White Supremacist Record
Mitchell makes no secret of his political views. On Facebook, he has posted the “14 words” – the most widely used white supremacist slogan in the world, coined by a convicted far-right terrorist, declared that diversity means “white genocide”, and claimed that “Jewish control over our people WILL be coming to an end.”
His followers and supporters, many of whom have ‘liked’ these posts, include other white nationalists, members of the neo-Nazi Patriotic Alternative, and his own mother.
On 1 December 2025, Mitchell reposted an announcement by Lowe regarding Great Yarmouth First, writing: “… finally something we desperately needed. Sign me up!” Rupert Lowe responded to him directly: “Welcome to the team mate!”.
The Telegram Channel
Mitchell recently renamed his Telegram channel – previously called Patriotic Chats – to Restore Britain War Room. Its avatar was changed to an image of Rupert Lowe pushing a wheelbarrow full of guns, superimposed on a picture of Auschwitz with a sonnenrad – a symbol associated with Nazism – rising behind it.
The group has approximately 160 members, including various members of the neo-Nazi PA as well as former soldier Alek Yerbury, a former PA member who left to found the fascist National Rebirth Party.
While Yerbury has criticised Restore Britain for not being extreme enough on Israel, other group members have expressed support for the party, writing that they should back Restore to “get wider reach” and “representation”.
Plans for ‘Groyping’
Elsewhere in the channel, members have made and posted memes depicting Rupert Lowe dressed as Hitler and suggested they resume “groyping” – a tactic popularised by US far-right commentator Nick Fuentes, who along with his followers attended US conservative conferences to present nationalist arguments. The aim is to draw organisers into debates that end up promoting ethno-nationalism.
In the UK, groups such as PA have adopted the same approach on radio station phone-ins and in online comment sections. Mitchell is well-known as a groyper and has posted examples on his TikTok channel, including a secret recording of him asking Rupert Lowe at a 2024 Reform UK conference what his plans were to prevent white Britons from becoming a minority.
Lowe did not answer the question directly but said he “feels for” Mitchell because his home town of Birmingham is “in bad shape”.
On Telegram last week, Mitchell advised followers that Restore supporters “have to hit Reform events and get back on the radio stations… promoting Restore Britain”.
Patriotic Alternative Endorsement
Mark Collett, founder of Patriotic Alternative, told far-right channel Unity News Network that he “really likes” Lowe and believes him to be the “greatest sitting MP since World War Two, including Enoch Powell”.
Repeating the long-held nationalist belief that white people will “be a minority” in the UK within their lifetimes, Collett added that the formation of Restore Britain had created “a lot of happy people” among his friends and a “renewed positivity that maybe we can mainstream our message”.
A Telegram post in which Collett urged members of PA to join Restore Britain was subsequently shared by Mitchell on the Restore Britain War Room channel.
Lowe’s Links to the BasketWeavers Network
Restore Britain has also been promoted online by Mark Houghton and Luca Johnson of the Lotus Eaters podcast. Fellow Lotus Eaters contributor Charlie Downes has been on the campaign trail with Rupert Lowe promoting the party.
Both Johnson and Houghton are members of the BasketWeavers, a secretive far-right group founded by Houghton.
Exposed after a year-long undercover investigation by Hope Not Hate, the BasketWeavers were revealed as white supremacists dedicated to building a whites-only society and driven by antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Their members include PA contributor Michael Wright (also known as Morgoth), who has recently published a lengthy blog post declaring his own support for Restore Britain.
The growing presence of white nationalists in Restore Britain appears to have had little effect on other supporters of the party. While Lowe has responded to allegations of white supremacist ties with legal threats, his more extreme supporters see him as a way to unite the far right.
Rupert Lowe did not respond to request for comment.
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