Rupert Lowe’s new political party has been backed to rival Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and take on the current “disastrous” Labour Government.
Speaking to GB News, Director of Campaigns at Restore Britain Charlie Downes declared Britons “never voted for multiculturalism and mass immigration”, two concerns he vows that the new party will crack down on.
The launch of Restore Britain as a national political party comes almost a year after his exit from Reform UK over allegations of bullying, which he denies.
In his launch video, he said his party would not include “failed ministers” or those “tainted by failures of the past” in an apparent swipe at Reform’s Tory defectors.
The former Reform MP said he had had “no other choice” than to convert the movement, behind an independent grooming gangs inquiry, into its own party.
Explaining why Mr Lowe decided to convert Restore Britain into a political party, Mr Downes said: “So when we first launched Restore Britain about eight months ago, the landscape was very different to how it looked now.
“The Conservative Party was in a bit of a tailspin, Reform were doing well in the polls, but not nearly as well as they should have been given this disastrous Labour Labour Government.
“And so we looked at the landscape and thought a movement was a better type of organisation to start than a party, because founding a party would have made it more difficult for Rupert to garner the kind of cross-party support that he’s been so successful at creating for his motions, for his letters, and, most importantly, for his petitions.”
Charlie Downes has backed Restore Britain to rival Reform UK as another party to take own Labour
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GB NEWS / PA
He added: “All of which we have used over the last eight months to advance the discourse on a number of different issues, most important issues facing our country at this time from rape gangs, our inquiry into the Pakistani Muslim rape gangs has just concluded, and the report is forthcoming, and some of the findings are absolutely they will make your head spin the most unbelievable evil that’s going on in our country.
“All the way through to mass deportations of illegal migrants, to school holiday fines and banning halal and kosher slaughter. So lots of very important issues which are fundamental to the character of our country and how it is changing.”
Noting how the landscape has “changed” for British politics, Mr Downes said Reform UK are “behaving as if they’ve already got it in the bag”.
He told GB News: “The landscape has now changed, and the two main parties in this country, representing those of patriotic and conservative mind, are in a mode of consolidation. They’re not interested in being brave when it comes to tackling the most pressing issues of our time.
Rupert Lowe was booted out of Reform UK | PA
“The Conservatives seem to be fairly content to sweep up votes in the south of England, in wealthy areas where there’s a kind of Lib Dem-Conservative split. And Reform are behaving as if they’ve already got it in the bag, so we now are in a situation where the two main parties are offering really nothing of substance to the British people, and they are being permitted to shift to the centre and indeed to the left on these issues.
“And so we felt that the time was now to give people a genuinely anti-establishment offering in the form of Restore Britain.”
Pushing back on Mr Downes’s remarks, host Ben Leo interjected: “Well, Reform are leading every poll by quite some margin for more than a year or so. You’ve said that Reform pretend to be anti-establishment, so how are you different to Reform policy wise with regards to, say, mass deportations?”
Mr Downes responded: “The first point on Reform’s polling success, yes, it is absolutely the case that Reform have been polling well for several months at this point. But I and many other people believe that this is purely because the British people have no other option. Reform is just different to Labour and the Tories, because Labour and the Tories between them have destroyed this country.
“And Reform are the only party currently on the landscape, well, up until yesterday, that actually looked like they were anything different. But actually, if you listen to what Reform say, if you listen to what they actually believe, if you listen to the vision that they are offering for this country, it’s really no different to what Labour and the Tories have been doing to this country for the last 30 years, and it’s revealed in the name of the party.”
Mr Downes told GB News the UK Government system was ‘never legitimate’
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GB NEWS
He added: “In fact, in my view, Reform actually do believe in the system as it is currently constituted, they just believe that it’s being governed badly. They do believe in the Blairite system of Government, and that’s what they are seeking to save by reforming it. We say no.
“We say that this system was never legitimate. The British people never voted, for example, for multiculturalism and mass immigration, and therefore it’s not enough to just stop and reform and conserve these things. They have to be reversed and a different Britain and older Britain has to be restored, and so on.”
Making clear their stance on immigration, Mr Downes concluded: “That final point then, and this is really important, and to that end, yes, we are absolutely saying that we should be deporting all of those living in Britain illegally, of whom there are about two million.
“But actually, when it comes to those who come here legally and who hold a British passport, for example, if they are not integrating into our way of life, if they don’t speak our language, if they commit crimes, if they are a net burden on the taxpayer, then they need to leave. It’s that simple.
“And this should not be a controversial view, because mass immigration was never actually given democratic consent in this country. And every opportunity for the last 60 years that British people have voted against it, and yet it has still been imposed upon us. And so it’s not unreasonable to say that the massive demographic change that this country has been through and is set to go through in the coming years, has to be averted.”