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 âVote Splittingâ Narrative
Lowe directly addressed the growing chorus of conservative voicesâprimarily from Nigel Farageâs Reform UKâurging Restore Britain to stand down to prevent âsplitting the voteâ and inadvertently handing the Makerfield seat to Labourâs Andy Burnham.
Lowe categorically rejected the premise of the argument. He dismissed a recent Times poll (which placed his party at just 7%) as a ârelatively small,â outdated âestablishment pollâ that contradicts the âincredible supportâ his party is seeing through internal canvassing.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. âI donât see thereâs any difference whether Burnham gets in⊠whether Starmer remains⊠whether Wes Streeting gets in. Theyâre all the same,â Lowe stated. He characterized the Labour Party as a âdeeply malignâ entity executing a âFabian agendaâ designed to undermine traditional British values, accusing them of disrespecting the 2016 Brexit referendum and secretly plotting to rejoin a âprotectionistâ European Union.
The Explosive Allegation: The Grooming Gang Inquiry
The most volatile segment of Loweâs 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 Partyâs complicity in what he termed âthe most pervasive evil in British historyââthe systematic abuse and grooming of underage, white, working-class girls by âlargely Pakistani Muslim men.â
According to Lowe, the report will demonstrate that Labour has presided over a âmass hidingâ of this abuse across the country for potentially â40 or 50 years.â He explicitly targeted Andy Burnham, claiming the prominent Labour figure has âPontius Pilate-like handsâ regarding the issue, suggesting Burnham washed his hands of responsibility while in power.
âTheyâve put power ahead of right and wrong, and they deserve to be punished for it,â Lowe declared, stating that once the report is published, âI donât see how any self-respecting person can ever vote for the Labour Party again.â
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 âdidnât give us an inquiry.â 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 âBattle of Britainâ against the establishment, Lowe is signaling that Restore Britain will not yield to political pragmatism. He noted that the by-election falls on June 18thâWaterloo Dayâhoping the date signals âanother great victory for this country.â
Loweâs 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.


