Could the next major threat to Reform’s insurgency come from the right? This weekend, Rupert Lowe – a former member of Nigel Farage’s party up until an acrimonious split last March – launched his own political vehicle. And one pollster is showing that they may be a force to be reckoned with.
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What is Rupert Lowe’s new political party?
Restore Britain are presenting a set of hard-right, zero-tolerance policies on immigration and crime. They are, in effect, further right than Reform. Rupert Lowe retains the support of most constituents in Great Yarmouth where he’s an MP – but does that translate on a national scale?
According to Find Out Now, their snap survey suggests that there could already be some significant cut-through for Lowe’s outfit. Respondents were asked who they’d vote for if a general election was held tomorrow, and Restore Britain were on the ballot. Around 10% said they’d back the party.
Reform, Tories could see vote share drop
What’s interesting about this, is that Find Out Now polls consistently put Reform up and above the 30% mark, even when they’ve slumped elsewhere. With Lowe on the ticket, however, their number drops down to 25% – putting them just five percentage points ahead of the Green Party.
Splitting the right… and Elon’s support?
Though their methodology for this poll differs from other recent opinion polls, the basic takeaway from this data is that the left vote doesn’t really change. But numbers for right-leaning parties do. Support for the Tories drops to 13% – when they usually poll in the high-teens to twenties.
Critics of these numbers believe that Rupert Lowe simply doesn’t have the profile or the wider ‘brand recognition’ to be pulling in these numbers already, suggesting that most of his supporters are ‘frequent social media’ users. He does, however, have one enormously high-profile supporter.
Elon Musk has previously stated that Rupert Lowe should have led the Reform Party, and last night, he expressed his desire to see the former Southampton FC owner become Prime Minister. However, with him on the ballot, a split in the right-wing vote looks increasingly likely.