Former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe has announced the launch of a new political party, Restore Britain, saying the country needs “full-scale restoration.”
Lowe, who represents Great Yarmouth in Norfolk as an independent, made the announcement on Friday, describing Restore Britain as a “national political party.” The initiative was first created as a “political movement” after Lowe was suspended from Reform UK last year over allegations that he made threats toward then-party chairman Zia Yusuf. According to the BBC, the new party will now function as an umbrella organization with locally based parties acting as partners.
“I was elected to Parliament in 2024. The good people of Great Yarmouth elected me. Not for one second in Westminster have I forgotten that,” Rowe said in an announcement. “I was sent there to fight for change. Not to do things how they’ve always been done. Not to accept more and more relentless decline. I was sent me there to try to fix it. And I have tried. I have honestly tried. And it almost got me sent to prison. I have used every tool available to a backbench Member of Parliament, and more. “
Lowe said his thinking was shaped by the independent inquiry into the Pakistani grooming gangs, which he explained was launched after the UK political system failed to act.
"But we have tried. And we have tried again. And again. And again. And nothing - nothing - has shaped my thinking more than our crowdfunded, independent inquiry into the Pakistani Muslim rape gangs. An inquiry that should never have had to exist. An inquiry that I created only because the political system itself would not act,” he said.
“We must call it what it is. It was, and still is to this day, the rape of Britain. They can call me islamophobic, racist or whatever else… I would rather be labelled a racist than enable rape,” he added.
Lowe said that Britain does not need “tinkering minor reform around the edges,” but rather “restoration. Full scale restoration.”
“I can no longer pretend that the existing political structures are capable of delivering the scale of change this country now needs, at the pace that is now required. The will is simply not there. That is why I am today launching Restore Britain as a national political party. At the next General Election, we will put forward hundreds of qualified candidates from outside the existing political establishment. They will not be failed ministers. They will not be politicians. They will be men and women who have succeeded in their own fields, and want to deliver a better Britain,” he said. “If we can get this right, we can transform British politics forever - forging an entirely new way. I simply could no longer justify asking you to place your faith in a system that has repeatedly shown it cannot - or will not - fix itself."
Lowe, who represents Great Yarmouth in Norfolk as an independent, made the announcement on Friday, describing Restore Britain as a “national political party.” The initiative was first created as a “political movement” after Lowe was suspended from Reform UK last year over allegations that he made threats toward then-party chairman Zia Yusuf. According to the BBC, the new party will now function as an umbrella organization with locally based parties acting as partners.
“I was elected to Parliament in 2024. The good people of Great Yarmouth elected me. Not for one second in Westminster have I forgotten that,” Rowe said in an announcement. “I was sent there to fight for change. Not to do things how they’ve always been done. Not to accept more and more relentless decline. I was sent me there to try to fix it. And I have tried. I have honestly tried. And it almost got me sent to prison. I have used every tool available to a backbench Member of Parliament, and more. “
Lowe said his thinking was shaped by the independent inquiry into the Pakistani grooming gangs, which he explained was launched after the UK political system failed to act.
"But we have tried. And we have tried again. And again. And again. And nothing - nothing - has shaped my thinking more than our crowdfunded, independent inquiry into the Pakistani Muslim rape gangs. An inquiry that should never have had to exist. An inquiry that I created only because the political system itself would not act,” he said.
“We must call it what it is. It was, and still is to this day, the rape of Britain. They can call me islamophobic, racist or whatever else… I would rather be labelled a racist than enable rape,” he added.
Lowe said that Britain does not need “tinkering minor reform around the edges,” but rather “restoration. Full scale restoration.”
“I can no longer pretend that the existing political structures are capable of delivering the scale of change this country now needs, at the pace that is now required. The will is simply not there. That is why I am today launching Restore Britain as a national political party. At the next General Election, we will put forward hundreds of qualified candidates from outside the existing political establishment. They will not be failed ministers. They will not be politicians. They will be men and women who have succeeded in their own fields, and want to deliver a better Britain,” he said. “If we can get this right, we can transform British politics forever - forging an entirely new way. I simply could no longer justify asking you to place your faith in a system that has repeatedly shown it cannot - or will not - fix itself."
