The party dragging Nigel Farage further to the right
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Guardian.
What is Restore Britain and why is it significant in the Makerfield byelection?
Today, is Restore Britain making politics even more toxic? With the Makerfield by-election only weeks away, many see it as a two-horse race.
Who are the main political players in the Makerfield byelection?
There's Labour's potential PM-in-waiting Andy Burnham and Reform UK's Robert Kenyon, who's faced criticism over alleged sexist remarks. But there's another player that's worth paying close attention to.
I do think immigration needs sorting out because it feeds into the local area. You know, even just things like traffic. You know, you can't get anywhere.
Rebecca Shepherd, the candidate for Restore Britain, a new party led by Rupert Lowe, the former Reform UK MP who famously fell out with Nigel Farage last year.
I've tried to work within the system, but I can no longer pretend that the existing political structures are capable of delivering the scale of change this country now needs. That is why today I am launching Restore Britain as a national political party.
Restore is currently polling third in Makerfield.
What extreme views is the founder of Restore Britain promoting?
You told the Daily Mail that you would put illegal immigrants and asylum seekers in, quote, a tented camp with a minimum amount of food. There are islands off the Scottish and English coasts where they can be detained. Put them there and let the midges do the rest. Do you mean that? I did say that, and I stand by my opinion. People who arrive here illegally should be detained and deported.
And though the party was only officially registered this year, its founder has been making headlines for espousing some of the most extreme views in British politics.
We are seeing increasing numbers of people coming here illegally. And equally, I think a lot of them have very low IQ.
Currently polling at 7% in Makerfield, could Restore ruin reform's chances of a by-election win? From The Guardian, I'm Lucy Hough. Today in Focus, Restore Britain, the party pushing British politics even further to the right.
Daniel Trilling, you are a journalist who spent nearly two decades writing about far-right politics. And you've just written a new book, If We Tolerate This. And you trace how since the 2010s, the language of that far-right politics has crept so much into the mainstream. I wonder if you think, if we jump back to that moment, could we imagine that we'd be talking about a party like Restore Britain as we are now in relatively normalised terms?
Yeah, I ask myself that quite often, actually. Like, if you went back to me in 2010 or so, when I was reporting on the BNP, the British National Party, who were, you know, this very extreme party founded by neo-Nazis.
I've shared a platform with David Yidd, who was once a leader of a Ku Klux Klan, always a totally non-violent one, incidentally. LAUGHTER
whose ideas at the time were regarded as completely beyond the pale, certainly in mainstream politics.
Let me show you what happened to the BNP share of the vote. It actually went down here.
And 15 or more years down the line, there's going to be quite similar sounding ideas circulating at the very highest level. Would I have been surprised? I suppose my answer is yes and no. Back then I thought, you know, this is marginal now, but there are things happening that could make this go much more mainstream, particularly if these ideas are taken up by people with disabilities. less of an obvious connection to fascism and neo-Nazism. But what I think I've been quite taken aback by and what prompted me to write the new book is just how rapidly things have got worse in the last, say, three to five years where, you know, we've had far-right populism building for a while in the UK like in other countries.
How does Restore Britain's rhetoric differ from Reform UK's?
But it just seems like in the last few years, there's been this opening of the floodgates where very extreme ethno-nationalist, racist rhetoric is suddenly there right at the forefront of British politics.
So how big is Restore Britain at the moment? Because it's become quite a substantial party already. Yeah.
So Restore began as a pressure group founded just over a year ago when Rupert Lowe left reform after falling out with reforms leadership.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:09
2
What is Restore Britain and why is it significant in the Makerfield byelection?
0:09–0:29
3
Who are the main political players in the Makerfield byelection?
0:29–1:29
4
What extreme views is the founder of Restore Britain promoting?
1:29–4:26
5
How does Restore Britain's rhetoric differ from Reform UK's?
4:26–7:08
6
What role does social media play in the rise of Restore Britain?
7:08–11:21
7
How is Restore Britain attracting support from extremist groups?
11:21–14:17
8
What impact could Restore Britain have on Reform UK's electoral strategy?
14:17–27:30