Earlier this month, Lowe offered to put his differences with Farage aside to form a pact with Reform, and Reform officials have been taking Lowe’s public offer of a pact seriously.
“They would like to work with us because he [Lowe] needs us to survive in the long run,” as one Farage adviser, granted anonymity to discuss the rift, put it.
But Lowe’s deal comes with conditions — he advocates mass deportations, including of women and children, a ban on halal and kosher slaughter, a referendum on the death penalty, and the exclusion of Conservative ministers from a future Cabinet.
Luke Tryl, U.K. director of More in Common, which conducted polling on right-wing pacts earlier this month, said a deal with Restore would be “more likely to damage than bolster Reform’s fragile voter coalition.”
“Some Reform voters are open to Lowe’s messages, but they risk deterring the wider pool of voters that Reform would need to win an election.
“It seems that a pact with Restore would cross too many lines for Reform’s wavering voters: this group wants to see Farage condemn racist views, retain a distance with figures on the hard-right like Tommy Robinson, and avoid ethnonationalist positions,” he said.