Bolton: Restore's offer of talks with Reform "still on the table"
Restore Britain's national security spokesman says Reform UK turned down talks, and claims "where Restore leads, Reform follows" on policy.
Henry Bolton has said Restore Britain offered Reform UK's leadership talks on working together, and that the offer still stands despite being turned down.
Mr Bolton, Restore's national security spokesman, wrote on X at 18:47 BST on Monday 12th October: "We made an offer to Reform UK's leadership to discuss possible areas of collaboration. They said no. The offer is still on the table."
He continued: "But on policy it's increasingly clear that where Restore leads, Reform follows. That's fine. They're good policies. We know they are. They're Restore's policies, even though Reform's leadership is a bit cautious about pushing them as confidently as we do."
He added that "the thing to consider isn't who can repeat our policies, or the glitzy press conferences. It's who has actually done the detailed work and planning required, and has the knowledge to deliver them - to translate the intent into effect."
At 18:54 BST, he set out what he called a repeated "sequencing", citing mass deportations and ending asylum: "1) Restore develops a policy, publishes the detail and makes the argument. 2) Reform attacks it. 3) Months later, or in the case of mass deportations and ending asylum, a year later, Reform adopts some version of it, generally watered down somewhat."
"That's fine. Politics should be influenced by good ideas," he wrote. "But voters should probably ask themselves a fairly simple question: who is actually leading?"
At 07:16 BST on Tuesday 13th October, an X user replied that the offer was "deliberately unacceptable. Just a publicity stunt." Mr Bolton responded: "No David, it wasn't. And until someone says 'ok we'll talk, but we're going to have to talk about your conditions too', you will never know."
Mr Bolton did not say when the offer was made, who received it or what conditions were attached.
Reform UK, Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf had not publicly responded to Mr Bolton's comments at the time of writing. Rupert Lowe, Restore's leader, had not commented on them either.
Mr Bolton's comments came hours after Reform set out plans to suspend the asylum system. This site previously set out the dates of Restore and Reform pledges on asylum: restorenews.grok.me/story/734ac4871c8b
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Image: nikoretro, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons