Nigel Farage fumes over ex-colleague’s new right-wing party

The Reform UK leader hit out at Rupert Lowe’s new Restore Britain party, which was announced last week, as he unveiled his party’s shadow cabinet in a press conference on Tuesday.

Speaking to the media, Farage dismissed a poll suggesting Lowe was on 10% with his new party as “utter rot”, although he conceded that billionaire Twitter/X owner Elon Musk would probably support the ex-Reform UK MP.

Rupert Lowe

Asked whether he felt threatened by his former friend after he set up the Restore Britain movement, the Farage said that “friend would be stretching it a little bit”.

“There is only one proper brand of centre-right politics in this country, it’s called Reform,” he said.

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“Does he have a profile on X? Yes, he does. Is Elon going to support him? Probably. But you see, when he stood up and said that we’ve got to consider the mass deportations of entire communities, including those born in the United Kingdom, that just moves beyond a point of reasonableness, of decency, of morality.

Elon Musk

“And that was the moment at which I realised we just had to get rid of him and get rid of him quickly as we could. And I think in terms of the way we dealt with that, we were probably more brutal than other parties, but you know what? That’s the way it’s going to be.”

It was then put to him that a new poll suggested Lowe was polling at 10% with Restore Britain, and he was asked if Reform was united in its ambition to unite the right.

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The poll, by Find Out Now, surveyed 1000 UK adults on February 14 on behalf of Restore Britain.

It used a different methodology to other Find Out Now surveys, with the company issuing a warning against directly comparing the results with other polls.

Farage said he had “no intention of doing a deal and shaking hands with people that I believe to be utterly dishonourable” and that “I look people in the eye, I shake their hands because I trust them” but that “I do not trust this Conservative Party”.

He added: “As far as Rupert Lowe is concerned, there will be some polling published later today that shows his recognition factor amongst members of the British public, it is not very high at all, and so a push poll that says 10% is utter rot. He won’t be on 1% anywhere, not even probably in Great Yarmouth.”