Reform is panicking about a party to its right in Makerfield

Reform UK was once an insurgent political party that aimed to steal hard-right voters from the Tory Party. At first, it seemed like Reform’s goal was to force concessions from the Tories — much like how UKIP did with the Brexit referendum. Surprising many, however, Reform actually ended up overtaking the Tories in the polls.

In response, Farage attempted to replace the Conservatives completely by softening some of the rhetoric and accepting bus-loads of Tory defectors. Predictably, this led to another insurgent political party emerging — this time seeking to steal hard-right voters from Reform UK.

The party in question is Restore Britain, and the latest polling suggests it could deny Reform a victory in the Makerfield by-election:

Reform VS Restore

The leader of Restore is ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe. The TLDR of Lowe leaving Reform is as follows:

• Lowe began criticising Farage (seemingly in coordination with Elon Musk).
• Farage suggested Lowe wouldn’t be anywhere near office without Nigel’s cult of personality (a.k.a. Reform).
• Reform suspended Lowe and reported him to the police for ‘verbal threats’ and “serious bullying” of female staffers.

Lowe would later form Restore in February 2026. The move came after Farage opened the floodgates to Tory defectors – a move which proved incredibly unpopular with Reform activists. Farage’s party would also hint at working with the Tories to ensure an election victory. As anyone could have predicted, this all made it harder for Reform to claim that it was an ‘alternative’ to the Tories.

By the end of April, Politico’s Poll of Polls showed that Reform’s polling had dropped from highs of 30%+ to 24%. Since the local elections and the chaos around Keir Starmer’s position as PM, the party has clawed its way back up to 26%:

Now, Reform faces two threats. The first is the bounce that Labour gets from Andy Burnham:

The second is that this by-election is going to shine a light on Restore Britain. And if Lowe’s party is able to dent Reform’s polling with hardly any national recognition, imagine what they can achieve with it.

On the march

Reform has adopted a stance of viciously attacking any and all opponents. Recently, this saw the party and its social media operation turn on a Makerfield charity director who dared to criticise them turning up at an event for disabled people without an invite:

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They are trying to present the woman running a cafe for people with special needs as the ‘uniparty’.

This is political cannibalism, where you demonise just about anyone if you perceive them to get in your way. Certainly curious to see if it works! https://t.co/wH2IpfdeVO

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) May 23, 2026

We’re also seeing suspicious bot activity like this:

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The electoral commission has to look into this.
It's clearly orchestrated. The question is – who is paying for it? Putin? Harborne? Farage? Some tech bro? pic.twitter.com/dgWGvxkZFq

— Dr Iain Overton (@iainoverton) May 23, 2026

Given all this, it’s unsurprising that Reform is gunning for Restore:

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Vote Restore. Get Burnham. https://t.co/Vx0sYB9RY0

— Reform UK (@reformparty_uk) May 23, 2026

One commenter argued that Reform isn’t best-positioned to make this argument:

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Reform split the vote and allowed Keir Starmer a super majority and all the Faragistas said that was fine.

But now Restore are doing it to them and the Faragistas are furious. It's almost as if they are TWO TIER! https://t.co/Ixm7fjnVZm

— Alexander Hall (@AEHALL1983) May 23, 2026

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Reform’s attack on Restore will drive up the latter party’s profile. This will allow Lowe to directly speak to the public, and to potentially convince those with doubts about Farage that there’s an alternative. The timing really couldn’t be worse for Farage, either, because there are many good reasons to have doubts about him right now — key among them the £5m ‘gift’ he failed to declare:

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Here are the facts as laid down by Derbyshire:
1) Farage says he won’t run
2) crypto billionaire pays him £5mill
3) Farage U-turns and runs
4) Farage hides the donation
5) Farage announces if he wins the election he will slash capital gains tax for crypto firms

Same old same old https://t.co/ViEIFZkf3A

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— Alonso Gurmendi (@Alonso_GD) May 6, 2026

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The optics say it all: Farage, a public school boy in cords and tweed, fresh from receiving £5m from another public school boy, nodding along as Kenyon argues that Britain’s real problem is teenagers who cannot be hired on the minimum wage. https://t.co/gA42bUhOKE

— Dr Iain Overton (@iainoverton) May 23, 2026

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Reform was already moving further rightwards to stop the drift towards Restore. A recent example of this was the plan to punish citizens who don’t vote for Reform. As we reported:

Reform’s new policy is to build migrant ‘detention centres’ (what would more accurately be called ‘concentration camps’) in areas which don’t vote Reform. The party has denied its new policy constitutes a ‘threat’. The reason it’s being interpreted as one is because Reform argued people shouldn’t want detention centres in their area. Therefore, it’s clearly a threat by the party’s own logic.

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This is a perfect illustration of the problem facing Reform. No serious practical solutions. Just political posturing. Which works fine when you’re trying to make a breakthrough. But won’t cut it when you need to move to being a serious alternative government. https://t.co/szML6sTV9g

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) May 4, 2026

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The problem Farage has is the problem Kemi Badenoch and the Tories have. Politicians to their right can simply say ‘well of course they’d say that now, but they won’t follow through on it‘. Eventually Rupert Lowe will let his supporters down too, and someone will emerge to his right. Oh, and we’re already seeing signs of this. As commenter Mukhtar noted:

People are resigning from Rupert Lowe’s party, including local branch chairs, after discovering that former Tory MP Scott Benton is now employed by Restore and has access to the membership database. Scott Benton resigned as a Tory MP after he was caught in an undercover sting offering lobbying access to the gambling industry.

They’ve now found a photo of him with a Hebrew tattoo and are saying this is not what Rupert Lowe promised them. The people Restore are attracting is certainly something.

The following are examples of right-wing accounts commenting on the matter:

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This is new Restore communications lead Scott Benton back when he was a Tory MP explaining to an undercover journalist posing as a gambling lobbyist how he’d be willing to lobby Ministers in exchange for cash.

Restore have hired a corrupt former Tory MP. Restore is a disgrace. pic.twitter.com/lV4lNJyfrR

— Wolf (@WorldByWolf) May 22, 2026

Increased attention will also mean more people learn that Lowe once had his groundskeeper execute his pet dog with a shotgun.

Reform? Restore? Reject!

Honestly, we don’t want Reform or Restore to do well. At the same time, we’d be happy for the two parties to do just well enough to cancel each other out.

Forgetting Repulse and Reject, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that Andy Burnham seems to be offering little more than reheated Starmerism. As we’ve reported:

• Burnham ‘to support’ Mahmood’s racist immigration changes.
• Burnham is silent on wealth taxes – not a promising sign from potential PM.
• Andy Burnham’s role with Iain Duncan Smith’s think tank just shows he’s more of the same.
• Burnham WON’T back proportional representation this parliament.
• Shapeshifting Burnham ditches trans rights to panic-grab Reform votes.

For too long, UK politicians have exclusively tried to appeal to frothing right wingers. We wish that Burnham was the man to pull us out of this death loop, but Burnham himself keeps telling us otherwise.

Featured image Getty Images (Sean Gallup) / Getty Images (Carl Court)

By Willem Moore

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