Nigel Farage confirmed at a Reform press conference this morning that he reached out to Rupert Lowe last night, after the Restore leader declared the pair should put their bad blood aside “for the good of the country“. Farage claimed today he is “open-minded” about “talks”…
“On the Rupert Lowe stuff, my understanding is he had a bit of a fallout last week with the Conservatives, who he had been working quite closely with for some time. If you want to do a political deal with somebody, you would contact them privately and not do twelve minute video. That said, I did actually reach out back yesterday to him. I did say, look, shall we have a call?
[…]
If it was the offer of a deal, it came in a very unusual way… I have responded to it, potentially with an open mind, as I would, but I’m certainly not going to be ditching people who I view as allies and a great asset.”
If this is the start of a united right coalition, it’s already hit choppy waters. Lowe has since tweeted that Farage “lied” in saying “‘shall we have a call?”. Instead, he claims, Farage said “will call later“, and never did. He nonetheless said the offer stands…
Restore was unlikely to have been a major threat to Reform in this by-election:
“Restore Britain will stand in the Clacton by-election. The second one, held later this year, when the investigations into Farage’s finances conclude as we all suspect they will. We are not going to participate in a Reform-sponsored media circus over the summer months that is designed to puff up Farage’s ego and deflect away from wholly fair questions over why he has concealed such vast and irregular financial donations.
Farage can play with his toys for the next six weeks, but Restore Britain is going to continue producing detailed policy papers, exactly as we have been, outlining how we can fix our country. That is what I am interested in. Detail. Data. Policy. A plan. I feel for the people of Clacton who deserve so much better than this unnecessary sham forced on them throughout their summer.”
Ed Davey meanwhile says the LibDems working to delay Farage by-election in parliament and is unable to say if his party will stand:
“First I want to explore with parliamentary colleagues if we can delay this by-election until the parliamentary commissioner for standards has reported.”
Democracy denied?
UPDATE: Badenoch says: “We’re not standing in a fake by-election.”
The Reform vs Restore battle is becoming more than an avatar of the personal dispute between Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe. As both ambitions in both camps soar, the troops are getting involved, as anyone on X will have noticed this week…
Much of the tension revolves around the Tory past of Reform Shadow Chancellor Robert Jenrick. Former Tories are not always finding the brave new world to be smooth sailing…
In an example of one hot tempered post, Restore influencer Charlie Downes fired at Reform’s Jack Anderton:
I hope they’re paying you good money for this, Jack.
Jenrick is a traitor and you know it. pic.twitter.com/GZWDdO9qAY
— Charlie Downes (@cfdownes_) February 19, 2026
Now sources have shown Guido evidence that Downes himself once applied to join Jenrick’s team, keen to assist the man that many in Restore now accuse of high immigration politics. He also applied to join the press team last year, and was rejected. The outbreak of hostilities includes further claims that Restore staffers are “using Rupert Lowe’s money to throw a tantrum”. For Lowe’s part, he continues to make his scepticism of Farage’s path very clear…
There is intrigue on the Tory side too. Party sources point wearily at Restore Britain’s policy paper on ‘mass deportations,’ whose acknowledgements section includes a thank you to one of Katie Lam’s current staffers formerly shared with Team Jenrick. The same sources say Bidwell’s positions on the ECHR are closely reflected in Rupert Lowe’s policy as written there.
The question is whether all the online chatter will have any real-world electoral effects. Reform remain fully confident that Restore are simply not on the pitch…
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock was asked if Burnham will take Britain back into the EU:
“Yes, sure – his commitment is authentic. He really does understand from the grassroots up why restoring what I think of as normality in our continent is vital for every party economically, politically, culturally, in terms of security, and he’s able to articulate it in language that people can understand. So yeah, he is definitely”.