Nigel Farage on Monday ruled out negotiations with his right-wing political rival Rupert Lowe unless Lowe removes a controversial associate from his party, presenting another obstacle to potential unification of Britain’s right-wing factions.
The prospects for Farage’s Reform UK party to gain power were already waning, and the arrival of new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has boosted the ruling Labour Party’s ratings. Although Lowe’s breakaway party, Restore Britain, still polls in single digits, it has shown an ability to siphon significant votes from Reform UK. Lowe founded Restore Britain after being expelled from Reform, but in recent weeks he has at least verbally extended an “olive branch” to Farage.
Farage’s conditions and accusations of antisemitism
On Monday, the prospect of a deal between the two warring factions hit a deadlock. During a press conference in Westminster, Farage publicly set a new condition for negotiations with “that party,” as he referred to Restore Britain. According to Farage, Lowe must remove one of Restore’s co-founders from the party, a demand that has already been rejected.
“I’m always happy to meet and talk to people — within reason,” Farage said in response to a question from POLITICO about his conditions for negotiations with Lowe. “But I think it’s fair to say there are one or two people in the orbit of the higher echelons of that party who, if I were to sit down and talk to, our members and our voters would be absolutely shocked that I had done so,” he added. “So, we can talk to Rupert Lowe — that’s fine. But when co-founders and other representatives of the party are peddling what I would call an ‘old theory’ — a theory we probably haven’t heard in this country since 1936 — and when other people who publicly support the party are calling for the expulsion of all Jews from the country, just as an example…”
The co-founder Farage referred to is Charlie Downs, who was accused this month of suggesting that Farage had been “bought” by his Jewish supporters. Anti-racism activists have accused Downs of spreading “the oldest libel” against the Jewish people. Farage’s statement about “people publicly calling for the expulsion of all Jews from the country” referred to Steve Laws, a Restore Britain supporter who advocates for “full remigration.”
Back in June, Lowe told POLITICO that Laws “is not involved in our decision-making process,” though he added that Laws is “very welcome” as a party supporter. Lowe also disagreed with the expulsion of Downs after The Telegraph first reported Farage’s refusal to negotiate. “Farage and Reform have also demanded that Restore Britain fully expel Charlie Downs — leaving a young Christian man jobless just as he seeks to build his life and start a family,” Lowe wrote on X. “I just don’t operate like that.”
Prison and deportation plans
Farage’s comments came during a press conference where he increased pressure on the new prime minister regarding Britain’s prisons, which have been operating near capacity in recent years. Farage stated that Reform UK would begin negotiations with El Salvador to lease prison facilities so that a future government under his leadership could send all foreign prisoners to serve their sentences abroad. This echoes former U.S. President Donald Trump‘s controversial policy on foreign inmates.
Among other potential countries that could strike similar deals, Farage mentioned Kosovo, as well as Estonia and Lithuania. Reform stated that these plans would free up 10,000 prison spaces in Britain. However, nearly a third of foreign nationals in custody are on remand, meaning they have not yet been convicted of a crime and are awaiting trial. When asked about this discrepancy, Reform’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf told POLITICO: “It’s not the gotcha you might think it is. The vast majority of these people end up being convicted — so in terms of the practical plan we’ve laid out, it doesn’t matter.”
Source: Politico
