A divided right

24/02/2026

In two days the Gorton and Denton by-election takes place and the competition between Reform UK and the Green Party is fierce. However, while Reform have been promoting their policies and canvassing with candidate Matt Goodwin, Rupert Lowe has gained momentum with the Restore Britain party. On February 13th Lowe announced that Restore Britain would be a national party and as on February 24th the party now has over 90,000 members.

“We can absolutely win the next election” - Rupert Lowe

This week Reform UK did hold a press conference in Dover where Zia Yusuf outlined the party's plan to protect Britain's border. One policy being, anyone entering the country illegally “will receive a lifetime ban” and those re-entering after being removed from the country will then result in a punishment of up to five years in prison. 

A quick scroll through Zia Yusuf ` s social media reveals the support that Restore Britain has. A quick scroll through the comments section of a reel posted earlier in the week reveals the support growing for Restore Britain. One person commented under Yusuf's post addressing the Reform plan for deportation flights, “Restore Britain is the only way now”. This again can be seen on a recent post by podcast Triggernometry, in which they asked followers of the podcast who they would vote for should Britain have a general election tomorrow. The result was overwhelmingly in support of Restore Britain and Rupert Lowe. As of today the post had received 680 comments, the majority of which were in favour of voting for Restore Britain 

Although Reform is generally the party to gain more members, councillors and Mp`s through defections, it is now Reform who are seeing the defections. This time the defectors are leaving Reform rather than joining and their new political home is Restore Britain. On February 17th seven reform councillors for Kent county council made the decision to join Restore Britain and leave Reform UK. Their defections will in turn create the first official Restore Britain group on the council. 

Perhaps this is the time for Farage to recognise the legitimacy of the threat posed by Rupert Lowe rather than dismissing his influence, stating “[Lowe] won ` t be on 1% anywhere” and that any poll suggesting otherwise is “utter rot”. 

Lowe` s party is climbing in the polls. Though it was only recent weeks that it was announced to be a national party, it has now reached 7% in certain polls (Reform are still well ahead with 25% as are the Conservatives who have 16%) and are projected to gain 100,000 members in the coming days. Surely this is the clear sign that the Conservatives' reign over the right is over and the vote will be split between Reform UK and Restore Britain.