Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe has issued a defiant public statement refusing to withdraw his candidate from the highly contested Makerfield by-election. In a newly released video, Lowe aggressively rebuffed pressure from rival right-wing party Reform UK to step aside, dismissed recent polling data, and leveled explosive new allegations against the Labour Party and Andy Burnham regarding the historical handling of grooming gangs.
The broadcast significantly escalates the right-wing civil war ahead of the June 18th vote, transforming the local by-election into a national flashpoint.

Rejecting the āVote Splittingā Narrative
Lowe directly addressed the growing chorus of conservative voicesāprimarily from Nigel Farageās Reform UKāurging Restore Britain to stand down to prevent āsplitting the voteā and inadvertently handing the Makerfield seat to Labourās Andy Burnham.
Lowe categorically rejected the premise of the argument. He dismissed a recentĀ Times poll (which placed his party at just 7%) as a ārelatively small,ā outdated āestablishment pollā that contradicts the āincredible supportā his party is seeing through internal canvassing.
More fundamentally, Lowe argued that tactical voting is irrelevant because he views the current political establishment as monolithic. āI donāt see thereās any difference whether Burnham gets in⦠whether Starmer remains⦠whether Wes Streeting gets in. Theyāre all the same,ā Lowe stated. He characterized the Labour Party as a ādeeply malignā entity executing a āFabian agendaā designed to undermine traditional British values, accusing them of disrespecting the 2016 Brexit referendum and secretly plotting to rejoin a āprotectionistā European Union.
The Explosive Allegation: The Grooming Gang Inquiry
The most volatile segment of Loweās address was the announcement of an upcoming independent inquiry report, spearheaded by Restore Britain, scheduled for release in early June.
Lowe claimed the report will expose the Labour Partyās complicity in what he termed āthe most pervasive evil in British historyāāthe systematic abuse and grooming of underage, white, working-class girls by ālargely Pakistani Muslim men.ā
According to Lowe, the report will demonstrate that Labour has presided over a āmass hidingā of this abuse across the country for potentially ā40 or 50 years.ā He explicitly targeted Andy Burnham, claiming the prominent Labour figure has āPontius Pilate-like handsā regarding the issue, suggesting Burnham washed his hands of responsibility while in power.
āTheyāve put power ahead of right and wrong, and they deserve to be punished for it,ā Lowe declared, stating that once the report is published, āI donāt see how any self-respecting person can ever vote for the Labour Party again.ā
A Swipe at Farage
Lowe also used the announcement to draw a sharp contrast between his party and Reform UK. He took a direct swipe at Nigel Farage, claiming that Farage had previously promised a similar inquiry into grooming gangs but ādidnāt give us an inquiry.ā Lowe positioned Restore Britain as the only faction willing to actually deliver on hardline populist promises.
The June 18th Showdown
By framing the Makerfield contest as a āBattle of Britainā against the establishment, Lowe is signaling that Restore Britain will not yield to political pragmatism. He noted that the by-election falls on June 18thāWaterloo Dayāhoping the date signals āanother great victory for this country.ā
Loweās strategy is high-risk. If Restore Britain performs poorly, he will face severe backlash from the broader political right for acting as a spoiler. However, by threatening to detonate a highly sensitive, emotionally charged report on grooming gangs just weeks before the vote, Lowe is ensuring his party remains at the absolute center of the media cycle, forcing both Labour and Reform UK onto the defensive in the final, critical stretch of the campaign.


