Lowe says Britain's "quangocracy" must be "destroyed", not reformed

Rupert Lowe has said Britain's network of unelected public bodies should be dismantled entirely rather than reformed, calling it the only way to "restore our democracy".

In a long post on X at 18:36 BST on Tuesday 6 October, the Restore Britain leader and Great Yarmouth MP wrote: "The quangocracy cannot be reformed or conserved, it must be destroyed. Meddling will not work. Replacing it will fail. It must be ripped apart from limb from limb. Power must finally be restored to parliament."

Mr Lowe argued that quangos are "so much more malicious than just a few meaningless bodies which oversee newt preservation or tarmac thickness". He wrote: "These are the men and women running the country - unelected and entirely unaccountable to the taxpayer, and even the MP."

He described "Hundreds of these agencies, panels, commissions, ombudsmans, boards, funds, authorities, offices", adding: "It is ENDLESS." He claimed they are staffed by people whose "one aim" is "to justify their existence", and that anyone who "genuinely fights for the taxpayer" gets "the boot". Those are Mr Lowe's characterisations, and he did not cite specific examples in the post.

His answer, he said, was "simple, in principle": "Return power to the MPs, and therefore the people. Make the power accountable." He acknowledged it would meet opposition, writing: "To think that can happen without resistance is naive, to say the least."

The post did not name which bodies Restore would abolish, or set out a timetable or costings.

Quangos, formally known as arm's length bodies, are funded by taxpayers but operate at a distance from ministers. They range from regulators to advisory committees.

The government launched its own review of every such body in April 2025. Announcing it, the Cabinet Office said each would be closed, merged or brought back into departments "if its continued existence cannot be justified", while bodies that "scrutinise government or protect the rule of law" would be unaffected. Pat McFadden, then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said the aim was to ensure "decisions of national importance that affect everyone in this country are made by those who have been elected to do so".

In written parliamentary answers in January and February 2026, the government said 10 new arm's length bodies had been announced since July 2024 to deliver its manifesto, including Great British Energy and the Independent Football Regulator. It said the review had already led to announced closures, including Building Digital UK and LocatED.

Image: Mikey from Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons