Inside Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain With Neo-Nazis, Reform Defectors and Associated Rogues

When he launched Restore Britain back in 2025, Rupert Lowe described it as a “fundamentally different way of doing things”, insisted that “members from all political parties are very welcome to join us on this journey”, and said his project would be part of a “bottom-up movement that has the potential to transform Britain”.

Since then, what began as a mere pressure group has transformed into a fully-fledged political party, and despite overtures to cross-party appeal, Restore Britain is amassing an extreme support base among its membership and donors, alongside members of the elite ‘Cromwell Club’.

Some of the members and campaigners for the party have expressed extremist opinions, and seem to believe Restore is the best vehicle for sometimes white supremacist aims.

As reported by The Telegraph, white supremacists with links to known neo-Nazi groups have pledged financial support to Restore, which is seeking to challenge Reform from even further to the right.

The paper reported that Steve Laws, a fascist influencer from Kent who has just launched his own pressure group, ‘Remigration Now’, posted on social media that he had donated.

Others on the far-right who have reportedly become paid-up members of Restore include Jared Taylor, an American white supremacist previously banned from the UK but who has subsequently travelled over anyway to speak at the annual conference of Patriotic Alternative (PA), one of Britain’s more prominent neo-nazi groups.

Taylor said of his approved membership: “I just joined Restore Britain. Apparently you can become a party member without being a British citizen. You can be a member even if you are banned from Britain, as I am!”

Further neo-fascist members who have reportedly paid to join Restore include Wiltshire-based Simon Birkett, leader of the ethnonationalist and fascist organisation ‘The Woodlander Initiative’, an organisation buying up plots of land for ‘white-only’ communities in Wales, and Sam Melia, the Yorkshire organiser for Patriotic Alternative jailed in 2024 for stirring up racial hatred.

Anti-fascist magazine Searchlight has also reported that another Restore Britain member is Chris Mitchell, a white supremacist and former East of England organiser for Patriotic Alternative. It is not known if or how much he has donated to the party.

HOPE not Hate has reported that other members of the far right, with links to groups like Blood & Honour, the British National Party, the National Front, and Homeland Party have also been attracted to Restore Britain and active among its membership at various points since its inception.

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The Councillors – ‘Independents’, Defectors, and Great Yarmouth First

The links between extreme figures and Restore Britain extend beyond those who are known to have donated to the party. As HOPE not Hate has previously reported, members of Patriotic Alternative campaigned for Restore’s Makerfield candidate Rebecca Shepherd.

But Restore at council level, more generally speaking, also operates in interesting and often unsuspected ways, with a considerable degree of local independence reflected in the Great Yarmouth-based offshoot of Restore, ‘Great Yarmouth First’.

Restore has been reported to be structured to act as an “umbrella” party, with locally based political parties operating as partners, following on from Lowe’s initial claim after being kicked out of Reform that he was setting up Restore Britain as a “political movement”.

‘Great Yarmouth First’ was, it seems, the testing ground for this method of political activism, where it was a resounding success. In the May local elections, Great Yarmouth First councillors won all nine seats they stood for on Norfolk County Council, more than doubling the Reform UK vote in each.

As first reported by Byline Times, this may not have been the only attempt made by Lowe’s party to try and establish a local base of loyal councillors in another area, though in this case it wasn’t under the official banner of the party. This outlet first reported that 13 “independent” candidates in Sheffield, were, in fact, all affiliated with or supporters of Restore Britain.

None of these candidates recorded an affiliation with Restore in their nomination documents, however the ‘Restore Britain – Sheffield’ page listed statements by some of them endorsing the party and stating their intention to run as independents. One of the candidates even went so far as to post that: “It perhaps goes without saying all our candidates are members of Restore Britain!”.

They added that “Subject to them gaining the majority of votes off [sic] constituents in the Wards they are to represent and them winning in the Local elections and then passing the subsequent vetting procedures our people would move from being Independent Councillors to represent the Party itself”.

Restore Britain issued their own clarification to this, stating that “The only borough we are standing candidates in at the local elections is Great Yarmouth. Anyone claiming to be standing for or endorsed by Restore Britain is not official.”

There have also been instances, as revealed in a joint investigation by Byline Times and HOPE not Hate, of individuals ostensibly standing for Reform, while also campaigning for Restore Britain, as in the case of Caspar Thomas, who was later dropped by Reform after this was revealed.

However Thomas, whose social media accounts had shared a number of antisemitic and anti-Muslim posts, remained on the ballot paper despite his expulsion as he had been chosen as Reform’s candidate. He was ultimately not elected.

All of this, as with the previously reported links between Restore and extreme individuals, raises the possibility that far right candidates will try and use Lowe’s party as a springboard into local politics, perhaps by stealth via standing for other parties or as independents.

So far though, the picture painted at council level nationally by Restore is currently a bleak one in terms of fair democratic representation. According to Open Council data, not a single one of Restore’s 22 other councillors have been elected to their positions under the banner of the party itself.

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Defectors from Reform

Similar to the bizarre events that unfolded in Sheffield, seven former Reform UK councillors; Maxine Fothergill, Robert Ford, Paul Thomas, Dean Burns, Isabella Kemp, Brian Black, and Oliver Bradshaw, all sitting on Kent County Council, recently defected to Restore, some after being expelled from Reform.

A councillor in Reform-run Leicestershire, Charles Whitford, joined Restore after being temporarily removed from a cabinet role for Reform. He had been ‘stood down’ from his post after being found to have sent bullying and intimidating emails to residents who complained to him about St George’s flags on lamp-posts, and used “inflammatory tropes” regarding Sharia Law and the supposed “Islamic colonisation of Britain” in emails.

Whitford told Byline Times he believed Reform have “wondered [sic] to the left, I presume to pick up more votes from the centre ground.”

He says he “was stood down” by Reform following complaints against him but has “been cleared” of some. “My apology was to anyone offended with the attitude of my email not the content.”

Whitford claims he faced “intimidation and bullying” himself from Reform figures.

The ex-Reform figure also says that he clashed with the Reform leader of Leicestershire Council: “I was not happy with the way this ex-Conservative was running the council…I was going to challenge his position as leader.”

Whitford claims he is now “being considered for a higher position within Restore Britain.”

Cllr Owain Clatworthy, originally a Reform UK councillor for Bridgend who recently defected to Restore, is currently facing controversy regarding his social media output, which has been branded “openly racist” and “divisive” by Bridgend’s council leader, including for posts reportedly stating that “Islam is not compatible with Western civilisation”.

In Northamptonshire, Jack Goncalvez and Darren Rance both quit to join Restore, stating that Reform had “reneged” on its purpose. Rance later reapplied to join Reform days after, though Goncalvez didn’t.

Councillors Luke Cooper and Scott Cameron, both elected to represent Reform in Warwickshire, had the whip removed by council leader George Finch, who said he believed they were planning to defect. In a joint statement, they said they were “delighted” to join Restore Britain.

Other defectors from Reform to Restore include Peter Colley, representing Bedwell in Hertfordshire, Brandon Dodd, in the Illtyd ward of Barry, Kieran Mishchuk representing Swale, and Deputy group leader for Reform in Cornwall, Roger Tarrant.

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Former Conservative Defectors

Three former Conservatives have also defected. A councillor in Argyll and Bute, Tommy Macpherson, who left Kemi Badenoch’s to stand as an independent, recently pledged allegiance to Restore, as well as Jack Symon, representing Wheatlands. He is a former Conservative councillor in East Riding, Maria Bowtell.

Bowtell had originally left the Conservatives for Reform in 2024, before later being named as Restore’s first councillor, attaining membership of three parties in as many years. Speaking to the press at the time of the defection, she stated that “My political opinions and principles have not changed”. Her council page says that she is a self-employed sole trader “currently undertaking work as part of my consultancy with Restore Britain Limited”.

Finally, a councillor elected as an independent in York, Mark Warters, also recently signed up to Restore, causing the local Liberal Democrats to call for his resignation, releasing a statement that “Residents in Osbaldwick and Derwent Ward did not vote for this. They voted for an Independent councillor, not for a party whose leader says ‘millions will have to go’.”

Last week, the BBC reported that two further former Reform candidates, Cameron Emery and Joanne Blythe, representing West Northamptonshire, have also defected to Restore.

Speaking to Byline Times, a spokesperson for HOPE not Hate said: “Restore has united Britain’s ethnonationalists to an extent unseen since the demise of the BNP. At HOPE not Hate we recently revealed that members of Remigration Now, the hardline pro-ethnic cleansing group headed by Hitler sympathiser Steve Laws, are joining Restore with the explicit agenda of making the party adopt their even more extreme views.

“But links with neo-Nazis are radioactive to the electorate, a point seemingly obvious to all except Restore’s own strategists. This is clear from the fact that the party’s election results are falling far short of its lofty expectations.”

Restore Britain, Rupert Lowe, Caspar Thomas, Owain Clathworthy, Mark Warters, and Maria Bowtell did not respond to requests for comment.

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