Farage in talks to strike pact with Restore

Nigel Farage is in talks to strike an electoral pact with Restore Britain.

The Reform UK leader said on Monday that he was “open-minded” about discussing working with his former colleague Rupert Lowe, who was ejected from the party last year.

Mr Lowe, who now leads the rival Restore party, said on Sunday that the pair needed to work together to bring about a “patriotic government” at the next election.

The potential collaboration had suffered an early setback after Mr Lowe did not immediately respond to Mr Farage’s message on Sunday suggesting that they hold a phone call.

The Telegraph understands Mr Lowe has since responded and talks are expected to take place.

Mr Lowe is seeking an electoral pact with Mr Farage whereby the pair would agree to stand down candidates in certain seats at the next general election to allow either Reform or Restore a better chance of winning.

Although Restore has not set a figure on how many seats it wants Reform to step aside in, senior party figures believe it would be competitive in Great Yarmouth and across areas of Greater Manchester following Mr Lowe’s work on an independent investigation into the grooming gangs scandal.

In last week’s Manchester mayoralty by-election, Restore finished fourth ahead of the Conservatives on around 9 per cent of first-preference votes. The party finished third in Oldham, Rochdale, Tameside and Wigan.

Restore has picked up between 2 and 6 per cent support from the electorate since last year, according to pollsters, raising concerns from Reform that the party will split the Right-wing vote at the next general election.

On Monday, Mr Farage admitted that Restore’s insurgent popularity posed a threat to Reform. 

Speaking at a press conference in central London, he said the rival party “could do us great harm” by splitting the Right-wing vote.

Mr Farage told The Telegraph that Restore “can’t win a single seat in the country outside of Yarmouth”, adding: “What they are really saying is they will hurt us if we don’t stand back and let them win.”

However, he said he was “open-minded to a conversation” but warned that “a conversation is different to a negotiation” and that he would not necessarily enter into a pact.

‘Co-operation rather than a merger’

On Sunday, Mr Lowe said he would work to bring about a “patriotic government” with Mr Farage if he agreed to five policies.

These included mass deportations, a ban on the burka, a referendum on the death penalty, deep cuts to welfare and that former Tory ministers such as Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman were excluded from any Reform-Restore cabinet.

However, The Telegraph understands Mr Lowe is willing to negotiate on these five conditions. A source said: “In negotiations you go in with what you want, and these things can be spoken about.”

The source ruled out a merger with Reform but said Mr Lowe wanted a “co-operation” pact with Mr Farage.

They said: “We are talking about co-operation rather than a merger. The key thing for us is the policy priorities and principles more than anything else. Everything else is secondary to that.”

Lowe ‘made secret deal with Tories’

Separately, The Telegraph understands that Mr Lowe made a secret agreement with the Conservatives last year, in which he promised not to criticise Kemi Badenoch’s party in exchange for a seat on the powerful Commons public accounts committee.

Two sources said Mr Lowe had agreed not to criticise the Tories during his committee appearances if the party nominated him to serve on the committee.

He later told GB News that he had made an “agreement” with Mrs Badenoch not to call her MPs “Lib Dem Tories”.

Mr Farage said during a press conference on Monday that Mr Lowe “had been working quite closely with [the Conservatives] for some time”.

A Conservative source said: “There is no deal between the Conservatives and Rupert Lowe – this is a figment of Mr Farage’s imagination. While Nigel fights his unnecessary by-election with a bin, he is desperately trying to smear all of us who oppose and question Reform.”

[Source: Daily Telegraph]