STEPHEN GLOVER: Only Rupert Lowe can save us from a monstrous coup. The trouble is he’s self serving, arrogant and a political extremist

When I returned to our shores after ten days abroad, I was astonished to find that a full-scale political coup was in progress.

Andy Burnham quickly managed to grab the keys to No 10, despite having no obvious qualifications for the job and not having bothered to put himself forward in the General Election.

He will probably appoint his friend Ed Miliband as Chancellor. Although he is still a member of the Cabinet, ‘Red Ed’ is reportedly offering tactical advice to the ‘King in the North’ as ​​he plans to replace Sir Keir Starmer.

As Rachel Reeves’ successor, Miliband will double down on the impoverishing net zero policies he forced down our throats as Energy Secretary. They would break the boundaries of Labour’s 2024 manifesto.

Burnham’s Cabinet will also be joined by Angela Rayner, who is unashamed of not paying her £40,000 stamp duty liability and is eager to hit hard-pressed employers with more workers’ rights.

Louise Haigh, who resigned as senior minister in November 2024 after it was revealed she mistakenly told police a decade ago that her work phone had been stolen, is also expected to take her place alongside Andy Burnham.

What a team! Let’s put aside their moral and intellectual shortcomings for a moment (perhaps excluding Red Ed, who is an intelligent bigot). All of them – Burnham, Miliband, Rayner, Haigh and their supporting contingents – would dominate the most Left government in our history.

But his policies will not be presented to British voters in 2024. Andy is doing his best to hide his true intentions ahead of this week’s by-elections in Makerfield, but if he wins, the mask will fall instantly.

Mr Lowe with Makerfield’s Restore candidate Rebecca Shepherd

The essence of the coup is that it is not democratic. Usually an unrepresentative and small group of people seizes power. They almost always continue to devastate the hapless country they control.

Can someone save us? There is a man who could do this if he wanted to. The problem is that, in addition to being a political extremist, he is also vain, selfish and arrogant. There is no point in appealing to his kindness and common sense, because he has none of that. I’m talking about Rupert Lowe, leader of Restore Britain.

Most polls show Burnham with a narrow lead over the rather weak Reformation England candidate, Robert Kenyon. If nothing changes, Andy will win on Thursday. But the margin of victory will likely be smaller than Restore’s entire vote, which polls show is around 8 percent.

In other words, if Restore candidate Rebecca Shepherd disappears, there’s a chance Burnham can be stopped and Britain saved from an incompetent Left government that no one voted for.

Since there’s no point in appealing to Rupert Lowe’s better nature, the only hope is that potential Restore voters wake up in time to the fact that the party they intend to support harbors some pretty nasty secrets.

Of course, the Restoration and the Reformation have much in common. Both have a firm approach to reducing immigration, particularly illegal diversity, as do the Tories under Kemi Badenoch. But the language Lowe uses to great effect on social media is more provocative than Nigel Farage’s.

He is also close to some very suspicious people. Farage has kept his distance from far-right rabble-rouser Tommy Robinson and refused to allow him to join Reform, while Lowe said at the weekend: ‘If Tommy Robinson wants to join us that’s up to him.’

Elon Musk has fallen out with Farage in part because the Reform leader has distanced himself from Robinson. Lowe, by contrast, did not offend the world’s richest man by attacking the activist.

Yesterday’s Mail on Sunday revealed some very suspicious links between Restore and extremist figures. Some of those campaigning at Makerfield met with neo-Nazis at a recent summit of white supremacists in Portugal calling for a whites-only Europe.

One of them is Callum Barker, who was the target of Restore last week and was described as a ‘hardcore neo-Nazi’. Another Restore activist, Lucy White, spoke at the summit and interviewed American white supremacist Jared Taylor, whom she described as ‘a true pioneer, a true legend’.

There was also a Restore campaigner identified as 19-year-old Lorcan Barker, who goes by the name ‘Angloid’ online and spoke on a panel at last month’s event. All three were photographed with Rupert Lowe.

Another supporter of Restore, Steve Laws, a self-described ethnic cleansing extremist who advocates mass deportation of British Jews, posted online about the success of the party’s campaign in Makerfield.

I’m not suggesting that Lowe shares these people’s utterly disgusting views. But the fact that he certainly associates with them, and that his party is supported by others of a similar ilk, should make decent people planning to vote for Restore think again.

The views I have expressed reflect those of the far-right British National Party and its forerunner, the National Front. Only in a few elections over many years were both parties able to get as much as 8 percent of the vote; The level Restore is currently voting on. Most of the time they get a share of less than 1 percent.

So why are a significant number of people considering supporting Restore Thursday? If you don’t believe (and I don’t) that Makerfield boasts an unusual number of bigots and extremists, it may be because most people are unaware of the bad side of Restore.

Of course, it suits the Left to lump the Reformation and Restoration together as indistinguishable from each other. They are not.

The question is where Nigel Farage’s heart really lies. Last week, the Reform government announced that foreign nationals living in social housing would be given three months to find private accommodation or face deportation.

This sounds very cruel and apparently contradicts his statement in September 2024 that “deporting hundreds of thousands of people is politically impossible.” He was right about this.

Did he change his mind because of Restore’s voting success in Makerfield and Lowe’s enthusiasm for deportation? It’s hard to imagine that this isn’t the case.

A much more profitable approach to reform would be to draw attention to Lowe’s party’s unhealthy connections with some dangerous characters. Many of those who plan to support don’t know what they will vote for.

I doubt that the Restore will pose a major threat to the Reformation in the long run. Lowe is not a serious politician. He is driven by his hatred of Farage. He is a maverick and extremist multimillionaire backed by the world’s first trillionaire, who irrationally portrays himself as an enemy of the establishment.

I’d be surprised if he stays the course. It will probably go out. But Rupert Lowe could deprive Reformation of victory on Thursday and thus deliver us into the hands of a government that will destroy Britain.

But it’s not too late to stop Andy Burnham’s horrific coup. Makerfield people wake up!