This Week In Restore Britain: 12th to 16th October

Immigration and borders

The week opened with Rupert Lowe pledging on Monday 12th October that a Restore Britain government would remove "millions of migrants who arrived legally, but are a drain on our society". (restorenews.grok.me/story/4a55d8113863)

Later that morning the party published a 45-page paper setting out plans for 30,000 detention places, with every illegal arrival held until deported. (restorenews.grok.me/story/24e055fadd7b)

Henry Bolton mocked Reform UK's plan to use the Royal Navy against small boats, saying Restore would create a separate Coastal Command instead. (restorenews.grok.me/story/41e5d7b5ae92) This followed Reform's Zia Yusuf pledging on Sunday to shut down the asylum system, a policy Mr Lowe said Restore had long argued for. (restorenews.grok.me/story/734ac4871c8b)

On Wednesday 14th October, MPs voted 309 to 113 against a Conservative motion to halt plans for up to 1,256 male asylum seekers at MoD Bicester. Restore's candidate for Bicester and Woodstock, Stuart Watton, said he would have voted for it. (restorenews.grok.me/story/36f058995651)

Reform and the right

Mr Bolton said on Monday that Restore had offered Reform's leadership talks on collaboration, that Reform had said no, and that "the offer is still on the table". (restorenews.grok.me/story/f02fa7f36fa6)

Policy and campaigns

On Tuesday 13th October, Mr Lowe set out plans for a "fundamental overhaul" of special educational needs support, writing that "not every difference needs a diagnosis". (restorenews.grok.me/story/77fa3fe95105)

That evening the party's account said that, "with the British people's approval", it would put to death the worst child rapists Pakistan refuses to take back. Its website pledges a binding referendum on restoring the death penalty. (restorenews.grok.me/story/418865b703e6)

Howard Cox, Restore's transport spokesman, called draft powers to enforce the pay-per-mile charge on electric cars "an outrageous abuse of power". (restorenews.grok.me/story/29ef245fb391)

Mr Lowe also said it was "absolutely outrageous" that the activist Daniel Thomas, known as Danny Tommo, remained on remand. Mr Thomas is charged with criminal damage and with failing to comply with a notice under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, and denies both charges. (restorenews.grok.me/story/1c9d70c011ac)

A Centre for Social Justice report published on Tuesday said only about one in five extra payroll jobs since 2014 went to British nationals. (restorenews.grok.me/story/70cbfdaa86af)

Farming

At a Public Accounts Committee hearing on Thursday 15th October, Mr Lowe told Defra's permanent secretary, Paul Kissack, "I think you are deluding yourselves", after Mr Kissack said the department was "getting an enormous number of things right", Farmers Weekly reported. (restorenews.grok.me/story/c6e0bc90a2e3)

Polls and elections

A Trajectory Partnership poll published on Wednesday put Restore on 6%, up three points, though YouGov had the party on 1% or 2%, depending on the source. (restorenews.grok.me/story/75930a028e31)

On Thursday the Scottish Daily Express reported a More in Common poll putting Restore on 5% in Scotland, ahead of the Scottish Greens on 3%. (restorenews.grok.me/story/04cf9062e7ce) The National reported on Wednesday that the party's new Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock branch was struggling to find an affordable meeting venue, and said it could not verify Mr Lowe's claims about Scottish membership.

In Thursday's by-elections, Mr Lowe said Marcia Talbot won "over 14%" in the Howletch ward of Peterlee Town Council; no official declaration had been published at the time of writing. In the Shepshed ward of Leicestershire County Council, GB News reported that Restore's Alexander McKenzie took 228 votes, or 6.8%, as Labour gained the seat from Reform by 53 votes.

On Friday 16th October an Electoral Calculus MRP conducted for PLMR put Restore on 8%, which the party called a record, but projected it would win only one seat. Martin Baxter of Electoral Calculus said Restore was "cutting into Reform's vote". (restorenews.grok.me/story/9f4db7feb433)

Mr Lowe closed the week writing on X at 20:34 BST: "After the support I have seen for Restore Britain this week, I have never been more convinced that we are going to take our country back."

Image: sebastiandoe5, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons