31 October 2026

This Month in Restore Britain: October 2026

Three policy papers, a Budget of its own, a first contest in Scotland, poll projections of up to 8%, and a head-to-head poll in which Rupert Lowe beat Nigel Farage

October was a busy month for Restore Britain. The party stood in its first Westminster by-election and its first election in Scotland. It published three policy papers and set out its own Budget hours before the Chancellor's. Rupert Lowe also took on the Government in Westminster Hall and at the Public Accounts Committee.

Here is the month in review. Pledges are what a Restore Britain Government says it would do; they are not settled policy.

The main points

- Restore stood in four council by-elections on Thursday 29th October and won between about 6.5% and 7% of the vote in each, including its first ever contest in Scotland.

- It published three policy papers: on detaining illegal arrivals, on regulating delivery e-bikes, and on veterans.

- Lowe set out "The Restore Britain Budget", a 20-point plan, on the morning of the Chancellor's Budget.

- New pledges covered NHS dentistry, the Graduate visa, gambling taxes, the countryside and the new refugee sponsorship routes.

- Two Electoral Calculus models put Restore on 8%, and in a More in Common head-to-head, people preferred Lowe to Farage as Prime Minister by 52% to 48%.

- A Gloucestershire county councillor defected to Restore from Reform, and the party named candidates for two of its "tier one" target seats.

Elections

Four contests on Thursday 29th October

Restore stood in four council by-elections on the same night. According to the councils' own declarations:

Mid Argyll (Argyll and Bute Council), Restore's first election in Scotland:

- George Love (Restore Britain): 124 first-preference votes, 6.9% of the 1,798 valid votes

- Kaine McConnell (Reform UK): 151

- The SNP's Andy Buntin won the seat.

Worksop East (Bassetlaw District Council):

- Anne Froggatt (Restore Britain): 91 votes, third, two votes ahead of the Conservatives on 89 and ahead of the Greens on 42

- Reform UK's Nancy Wright won with 600.

Beechwood & Heath (Halton Borough Council):

- Ash Corcoran (Restore Britain): 134 votes, fourth, ahead of the Conservatives on 56

- Reform UK's Neil Thornton won with 750.

St James's (Dudley Council):

- Tristian Owens (Restore Britain): 159 votes, fourth, ahead of the Greens on 79

- Labour's Caroline Reid won with 874, two votes ahead of Reform UK on 872.

Lowe wrote on X at 06:50 GMT on Friday 30th October: "First ever election in Scotland for Restore Britain yesterday, and the team did not let us down. Straight in at 7%, only 1.5% off beating Reform."

He added: "Three other results across England - beat the Tories in two, beat the Greens in two. Superb work." The council figures bear that out: Restore beat the Conservatives in Worksop East and Beechwood & Heath, and the Greens in Worksop East and St James's. In Mid Argyll it was 27 votes behind Reform.

Lowe added: "All important preparation for next May's elections - there will be more news from Restore Britain on this very soon..."

Earlier in the month

- Thursday 8th October: in Restore's first Westminster by-election, in Holborn and St Pancras, Tyler Kurtis Johnson won 692 votes and finished sixth of 15. That is about 2.5% of valid votes on Camden Council's figures; Lowe put it at "3%". Lowe wrote at 09:53 BST the next morning: "Every single one of our 692 Restore Britain votes yesterday meant it." He added: "The establishment may detest it, but Restore Britain is now an established national political party."

- The same night, Edward Oakenfull won 246 votes (10.8%) in a council by-election in Amber Valley, which Lowe called the party's "best election result ever outside of Norfolk".

- Friday 16th October: Lowe said Marcia Talbot "won over 14% of the vote" for Peterlee, calling it "our best ever election result outside of Great Yarmouth". That figure is Lowe's; we have not seen an official declaration. He also said Restore "scored more than the Lib Dems and Greens combined" in Shepshed, Leicestershire.

- Thursday 22nd October: in Restore's first contest in Calverley & Farsley, Leeds, Bradley Holmes won 151 votes (2.6%), fifth of seven, ahead of the Liberal Democrats and the Yorkshire Party.

Policy: what a Restore Britain Government would do

Three policy papers

- Monday 12th October, "The New Illegal Arrivals Detention Estate": everyone who arrives illegally would be detained until deported, in three new centres with 30,000 places in total, at an estimated cost of up to £5.7 billion.

- Tuesday 20th October, "Regulating e-bikes for commercial use": delivery e-bikes would be registered, licensed, insured and taxed, with riders trained and displaying an identification number.

- Friday 30th October, "A Home Fit for Heroes: Putting Britain’s Veterans First": a Department of Veterans' Affairs under a Cabinet minister; a legal Veterans Charter; free prescriptions and NHS dental care for qualifying veterans and their families; free eye and hearing tests; priority for social housing; and an end to "malicious" legacy prosecutions. Lowe launched it at 09:32 GMT, writing: "Our veterans have earned more than our gratitude and remembrance." He said Henry Bolton, "a veteran himself", explained the policy in a video. At 17:46 GMT he added: "A Restore Britain Government will run a fast-track recruitment campaign to bring thousands of British veterans into immigration enforcement roles - field roles."

The Restore Britain Budget

At 08:35 GMT on Wednesday 28th October, hours before the Chancellor's Budget, Lowe set out a 20-point plan. It put spending cuts first and included scrapping inheritance tax and stamp duty, and raising the tax-free personal allowance to £16,000.

Later that afternoon, at 15:27 GMT, Lowe highlighted a line in the Budget: "'The government is providing £150 million capital investment in 2027-28 to fund additional large sites to accommodate asylum seekers'". He called it "A treasonous decision" and said: "Every penny of that should be directed towards a programme of mass deportations." The line is in paragraph 6.18 of the Budget document.

Borders and immigration

- Sunday 11th October: Lowe called for a "deportation NATO", with Western countries acting together against countries that refuse to take back their citizens, starting with Pakistan.

- Monday 12th October: Lowe said a Restore Britain Government "will remove millions of migrants who arrived legally, but are a drain on our society, our economy and our people".

- Sunday 18th October: after the riots in France, Lowe pledged to seek agreements with other countries to take serious offenders who hold only British citizenship. Henry Bolton wrote at 19:25 BST: "The country must wake up to the warning of France. A Restore Britain government will secure the borders, deport foreign offenders, all those here illegally, and all new illegal arrivals."

- Wednesday 28th October: the party's account wrote at 14:05 GMT: "Labour is extending the Graduate Visa. A Restore Britain Government will abolish it."

- Thursday 29th October: the Home Office opened applications from charities to become lead sponsors for new refugee routes. The Home Office says the first arrivals are expected next autumn. Arrivals through the new routes and the existing UK Resettlement Scheme will start "in the hundreds" and grow "into the low thousands". Lowe responded at 18:04 GMT: "A Restore Britain Government will deport every man, woman and child who arrives under this scheme. It will be applied retrospectively." Restore has not yet set out how this would work in law.

Health and families

- Sunday 11th October: Lowe set out a "six point plan to fix the NHS", including scrapping medical school caps and free hospital parking for patients, visitors and staff.

- Tuesday 13th October: Lowe set out plans to overhaul special needs education (SEND), writing: "Not every child learns in the same way, and certainly not every difference needs a diagnosis."

- Thursday 29th October: Lowe set out a 10-point plan for NHS dentistry at 08:20 GMT. It includes training more British dentists, free dental training for British students who commit to ten years of NHS service, and ending routine NHS-funded dental care for foreign nationals. It also targets assessment or treatment within 24 hours for urgent cases. Separately, NHS Business Services Authority figures show 201,123 HC2 certificates, which give full help with NHS health costs, went to asylum seekers in 2025/26. These are certificates, not individual people. At 16:39 GMT Lowe extended the free-tuition idea to "professions of national importance", writing: "The first announced is dentistry."

Work, money and the economy

- Tuesday 20th October: in a pitch to younger voters, Lowe pledged to scrap student loan interest, axe stamp duty and replace the pensions triple lock.

- Wednesday 21st October: an eight-point plan for the security industry, including rechecking every security licence.

- Thursday 22nd October: Lowe called for an independent inquiry led by engineers into June's "near-blackout" on the electricity grid.

- Thursday 29th October: at 07:51 GMT Lowe wrote: "Gambling is not evil, and a Restore Britain Government will reduce taxes on the industry." The day before, the Budget announced that Machine Games Duty would rise from 20% to 25% on machine games with stakes over £1 from April 2027.

Transport and the countryside

- Monday 12th October: Howard Cox, Restore's transport spokesman, called draft powers to enforce the new pay-per-mile charge on electric cars "an outrageous abuse of power".

- Wednesday 28th October: the Budget extended the 5p fuel duty cut and freeze to 1st July 2027. Cox, writing as founder of FairFuelUK, called it "A 16th-YEAR VICTORY FOR FAIRFUELUK DRIVERS LOBBYING THEIR MP, THE PM. CHANCELLOR.", but said "pump prices must be cut NOW".

- Sunday 25th October: Lowe said Restore is "unashamedly pro-shooting" and wants British game served in schools and hospitals.

- Monday 26th October: Lowe proposed taking firearms and shotgun licensing away from local police forces and giving it to a national body modelled on the Passport Office, to end long waits for farmers, gamekeepers and responsible gun owners.

- Friday 30th October: Councillor Roger Tarrant explained in a video why a Restore Britain Government would scrap Labour's tourist tax.

Armed forces

- Monday 19th October: as the Troubles Bill neared the end of its Commons stages, Restore pledged to end "the endless reinvestigations of lawful operational service", writing: "We will protect those who protect us."

In Parliament

- Tuesday 27th October: Lowe spoke in a Westminster Hall debate on the Government's response to the Covid-19 Inquiry's report on vaccines. According to Hansard, he said: "Millions of healthy young men and women should never have been forced to take that vaccination, and those responsible for that decision must be held accountable." He added: "Then came vaccine passports, also forced through by Reform UK’s Zahawi," and "There must be accountability."

- Thursday 15th October: at a Public Accounts Committee hearing on food supply resilience, Lowe told Defra's permanent secretary, Paul Kissack: "I think you are deluding yourselves", according to Farmers Weekly.

- Thursday 29th October: after the Public Accounts Committee's session on child benefit fraud, Lowe wrote at 13:24 GMT that he had told the HMRC chief executive "we NEED to see accountability and consequences for the staff who made such a mess of it all. It's straightforward - start sacking the failing civil servants."

- Lowe tabled 74 written questions in October, according to Parliament's records. They covered subjects including asylum contracts, prisoners released into temporary accommodation, HMRC phone lines, Afghan resettlement, passport forgery and civil servants with second jobs. One asked how many extra places the Budget's £150 million for asylum "large sites" would provide.

Polls

According to the polls and models published in October:

- Trajectory Partnership, published Wednesday 14th October: Restore on 6%, up three points. Some other polls that week, including YouGov's, had it lower, at 1% to 2%.

- More in Common, Scotland, reported Thursday 15th October: Restore on 5%, ahead of the Scottish Greens on 3%.

- Electoral Calculus/PLMR MRP, published Friday 16th October: Restore on 8%, which the party called a record. On those figures the model projects Restore winning one seat. That is a projection, not a poll result.

- Ipsos Political Pulse, fieldwork 9th to 13th October, highlighted by Lowe on Monday 19th October: 8% of Britons rated Restore "very favourable", third behind Reform UK (12%) and Labour (9%). This measures strength of feeling, not voting intention.

- Electoral Calculus/Find Out Now, published Wednesday 21st October, 10,684 adults: Restore on 8%, level with the Greens in the tactical-voting model, and 10% in a modelled proportional representation scenario.

- More in Common head-to-heads, fieldwork 16th to 19th October, 3,069 adults: people preferred Lowe to Farage as Prime Minister by 52% to 48%, according to The Independent. This is a forced choice between two leaders, not voting intention.

People

- Friday 2nd October: Gloucestershire county councillor Michael Rees, 22, left Reform UK for Restore. The BBC described him as the "First Restore Britain councillor in the West".

- On Monday 19th October the Lowestoft Journal reported that Councillor James Bensly of Great Yarmouth Borough Council had been selected as Restore's prospective parliamentary candidate for Lowestoft. The paper said he had defected from the Conservatives three weeks earlier. It also reported that Restore had identified Lowestoft as a "Tier One target seat".

- Saturday 17th October: Lowe announced Councillor Don Whitaker as the candidate for Burnley, "another tier one seat", adding: "We can win that constituency, and give Burnley patriots real representation in parliament."

- Membership: Lowe wrote at 07:07 BST on Friday 2nd October that "877 new Restore Britain members joined yesterday, almost half of them in Scotland". On Sunday 4th October he wrote: "Restore Britain has just overtaken the Reform membership in Scotland - more than Labour, the Tories, the Greens. Restore Britain is now the second largest party in Scotland - historic." These are Lowe's figures and have not been independently verified.

Taking on Reform

- Friday 9th October: Lowe wrote that morning that "Those 692 votes do not belong to us, and they certainly do not belong to Reform." That afternoon, Reform's Richard Tice posted "Vote Restore get Islamists", quoting the Amber Valley result.

- Monday 12th October: Henry Bolton said Restore had offered Reform's leadership talks: "They said no. The offer is still on the table." He added that "where Restore leads, Reform follows".

- Sunday 18th October: when Farage warned that "the carnage in France is our future", Restore's campaigns director Charlie Downes replied: "You will do nothing. Get out of our way."

- Tuesday 27th October: Farage told GB News that Restore would "at most" be competitive in one seat, and asked its supporters to "come back". Lowe answered that "Millions must go".

Campaigning and free speech

- Debate stalls run by Freedom Watch GB, the group founded by Montgomery Toms, were shut down by opponents during the month, including in Brighton on Saturday 10th October.

- Thursday 8th October: a petition to end the mandatory addition of folic acid to flour passed 100,000 signatures. Lowe wrote: "I will make that argument in Parliament following the successful petition. Leave the sodding bread alone."

- Friday 30th October: Lowe wrote at 15:12 GMT that his latest MP salary donation would "help rehome retired racing greyhounds from Great Yarmouth".

What's next

Lowe has called the October contests "All important preparation for next May's elections", and promised "more news from Restore Britain on this very soon".