Nigel Farage has said he is “open minded” to an election pact with the Restore Party but would not “ditch” his allies. The Reform UK leader was responding to suggestions from Rupert Lowe, who had posted a video online at the weekend urging the two to work together.
Mr Lowe, who was one of the first ever Reform MPs elected to Westminster in the 2024 general election, acrimoniously left the party in March 2025 amid claims of bullying and threatening behaviour. In the fallout, the Great Yarmouth MP called Mr Farage a “coward” and a “viper” – and went on to found his own Restore Party.
Electoral impact
In both the Makerfield by-election and last week’s Manchester mayoral election won by Labour, the two parties outpolled the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
Mr Lowe then posted a 12-minute video on X in which he suggested he was open to working with Reform UK. But he stated Mr Farage would have to agree to ban the burqa and halal meat and rule out any former Conservative ministers, such as Robert Jenrick or Suella Braverman, being involved in future cabinets.
Farage's response
In response, Mr Farage said he had “no desire” to meet some of the items on Mr Lowe’s policy “shopping list”.
“If you want to do a political deal with somebody, you know, you would contact them privately and not do a 12-minute video,” Mr Farage told a press conference in central London on Monday. “That said, I did actually reach out back yesterday to him. I did say, ‘look, should we have a call?’ I haven’t heard back yet, so I don’t know what the sincerity of this is.”
Mr Farage added: “I don’t ditch my friends. I don’t ditch my allies, whether that’s Suella Braverman or Posh George (Cottrell), you know I do not ditch people because somebody else wants me to.”
However Mr Farage added: “In broader terms, look, you could see a situation where Restore, without the hope of winning anything outside Great Yarmouth, I mean literally without hope of winning a single seat in the country, could do us great harm.
“I think online you will see a lot of Restore potential voters now beginning to worry about the impact that might have.
“I finalise that by saying if it was the offer of a deal, it came in a very unusual way. “I have responded to it potentially, you know, with an open mind, as I would, but I’m certainly not going to be ditching people who I view to be allies and a great asset.”
Lowe's counter
Mr Lowe later posted on X that Mr Farage was a “liar”, and disputed his version of events – but said the offer was still open to him and Reform UK.
Mr Lowe, the former chairman of Southampton FC had previously served alongside Mr Farage in the Brexit Party in the European Parliament.
However less than a year after being elected to Westminster, he was reported to police by Reform UK’s then chairman Zia Yusuf over accusations of bullying and threatening behaviour. He was also investigated by the party over bullying claims.
After the Crown Prosecution Service said he would face no criminal charges, Mr Lowe said he was “ashamed” to have shared a platform with Reform.
His Restore party has since won seats on Norfolk County Council and Great Yarmouth Borough Council. It finished third in the Makerfield by-election with 6 per cent of the vote.
It calls for “mass deportations” of illegal migrants and a referendum on the death penalty.
Call for cooperation
Yet despite his previous words about Mr Farage, in a video posted on Sunday, Mr Lowe said: “I truly believe there could be sufficient common ground for our two movements to co-operate collectively (to) destroy the looming left-wing alliance that will finish off what hope remains for this country.
“We have recently shown how effectively co-operation can work locally on the Norfolk County Council, so why not at national level?”
Speaking to journalists at an event on Monday alongside Mr Yusuf, Mr Farage said a “sorry would be nice” from Mr Lowe.
He said: “Look, there is this myth that I fell out with Rupert Lowe. It’s not true. “Everyone fell out with Rupert Lowe. It was the screaming, the shouting, the threatening, the legal threats, everyone fell out with him.
“If you have to have to speak to people or make arrangements with people that you’ve previously fallen out with, if there is a greater good to be had from that, then I’m not closing my mind to it. Sorry would be nice, but I would have thought unlikely to be forthcoming.”
