Lowe: Restore Britain is "unashamedly pro-shooting" and wants British game served in schools and hospitals

Restore Britain wants more British game served in schools, hospitals and other public sector institutions, Rupert Lowe has said, as he declared the party "unashamedly pro-shooting".

In a post on X at 11:16 GMT on Sunday 25th October, the Restore Britain leader said shooting supplies British game to local butchers, restaurants, pubs and households, and supports jobs in parts of the countryside "entirely forgotten by Westminster".

The main points

- Restore Britain describes itself as a pro-shooting party that supports "responsible shooting".

- Lowe says shooting helps supply British game to butchers, restaurants, pubs and households.

- He says it supports gamekeepers, farmers, rural businesses, food processors and hospitality jobs, often at quieter times of year for rural businesses.

- Restore wants more British game eaten at home and served across the public sector, including in schools and hospitals.

- Lowe says this would be better than "importing cheap meat from the other side of the planet".

- A Restore Britain Government would "proudly celebrate" countryside food and the people who produce it.

What Lowe said

Lowe's post in full:

"Restore Britain is an unashamedly pro-shooting party.

"It is a vital part of rural Britain, helping supply British game to local butchers, restaurants, pubs and households.

"It supports gamekeepers, farmers, rural businesses, food processors, hospitality jobs and more. It pumps millions and millions into parts of rural Britain that are entirely forgotten by Westminster - very often at times of the year when otherwise local businesses would perish.

"We want to see more British game on dinner tables, at home but also across the public sector. Let’s serve more game in our schools, hospitals and other public sector institutions.

"Why not? Rather than importing cheap meat from the other side of the planet.

"Use what we have here.

"A Restore Britain Government will proudly celebrate the food produced in our countryside and the people whose livelihoods depend on it. Something urban MPs, the vast majority of them, will never understand.

"Restore Britain supports responsible shooting."

Part of a wider "buy British" pitch

The idea fits with policies Lowe has set out before. In a list of Restore Britain policies posted on X in June, he said the party would make the public sector "buy British - it will support British farmers, producers and small businesses".

The party has also backed shooters before. On Tuesday 1st September, Restore Britain posted that it "will back responsible British gun owners and oppose new changes that will make their shooting life almost impossible to sustain". Two days later, Lowe wrote: "Law-abiding British gun owners are not the enemy, and this urban-obsessed Labour Government needs to back off."

What is changing for shooters

The Home Office announced new firearms licensing rules on Tuesday 29th September. Under them, people applying for a firearm or shotgun certificate must:

- declare any second homes where firearms could be stored

- tell police about everyone living in their household

- tell police about relevant medical conditions during the five-year life of a certificate

According to the Home Office, existing application forms could be used during a one-month transition period. From Thursday 29th October, only the revised forms will be accepted.

What shooting is worth

The most widely cited figures come from The Value of Shooting, a 2014 report by the consultancy PACEC, released by shooting and countryside organisations. According to the Countryside Alliance, the report found that shooting:

- is worth £2 billion a year to the UK economy in gross value added

- supports the equivalent of 74,000 full-time jobs

- involves £2.5 billion a year of spending by people who shoot

Image: Gordon Hatton, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons