An horrific murder – and a civil war threatening to tear apart the British right |
The video of the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak at the hands of Vickrum Digwa in Southampton is horrifying. But Nigel Farage’s decision to respond to these events by calling for “pure cold rage” and insisting we recognise that “white lives matter” is a worrying sign of an increasingly racialised turn in the politics of the British right.
This shift has not taken place in a vacuum. For a year now, while progressives have worried about how to beat Reform, Farage’s party has faced a new threat that has come not from the left, but a party even further to the right. Restore Britain, a party founded by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, has been deeply critical of Farage’s outfit for not being radical enough. These criticisms have put pressure on Reform – and they may push British politics even further right.
The roots of Restore Britain can be traced back to Lowe’s bitter departure from Reform in March last year. Soon after Lowe described Reform as “a protest party led by the Messiah”, the party’s chair, Zia Yusuf, alleged that Lowe had made threats of physical violence against him – and several party employees accused the Great Yarmouth MP of bullying within his parliamentary office. Lowe has denied both allegations.
In June last year, Lowe launched Restore as a “political movement” before transforming it into a fully fledged national political party this February. While multimillionaire Lowe is its only MP, a small clique of young activists, including Charlie Downes, Harrison Pitt and Lewis Brackpool, have been some of its most prominent spokespersons.
The launch of the party was met with enthusiasm across large sections of the far right, particularly among those who view Reform as insufficiently hardline on immigration. Last June, during the launch event in his constituency of Great Yarmouth, Lowe drew applause from supporters after promoting a policy centred on large-scale........