In case you missed it, there was an outlier in the local election results this week. It happened in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, where all seats up for election were won by the local very far-right Restore Party branch operating as Great Yarmouth First.
As the Anti-Capitalist Musings Substack (which I recommend, which has been monitoring this far-right action) noted:
Nigel Farage told a Reform UK eve-of-poll event that Rupert Lowe would not get one per cent of the vote in Great Yarmouth. The room laughed and clapped. Yesterday, Great Yarmouth First won all ten seats in the borough's Norfolk County Council divisions, with vote shares above forty per cent in every single one. In Magdalen, Kevin Huggins took fifty per cent. In at least one other division, the candidate cleared forty-three. Reform, running against them in their ex-MP's constituency, was pushed into second place.
Farage was not making a careless prediction. He was expressing a consensus. Most people looking at British politics over the past six months have not taken Restore Britain seriously. A recently registered party, a millionaire MP with a complicated history, a social media operation that looked, from a distance, like performance. The press has barely covered it. The left has largely ignored it. When I wrote, at the party's founding in early 2026, that this was the most dangerous far-right formation Britain had seen in decades, the response was sceptical.
And as they added:
What Farage missed, and what the consensus missed, is that Great Yarmouth First was never a vanity project. It was a proof of concept. Lowe and his campaigns director Charlie Downes designed the operation around a specific theory of how to build electoral power on the radical right. Local branding to neutralise the toxicity of the national name. A policy cadre operating behind a presentable figurehead. Targeted deployment in the one constituency where the ground had been prepared. If it worked in Great Yarmouth, it could be replicated. That was always the stated plan.
The march of the far-right is not finished yet, and in Great Yarmouth, the Restore pushed Reform into second place in every seat. No one else really got a look in anywhere.
Why note this? I do so for the very obvious reason that Rupert Lowe has money, right-wing inclinations that far exceed those of Nigel Farage in their vulgarity, and now he has proven electoral success. To presume in that case that the far right in the UK is a single force will, henceforth, be a potential mistake. The possibility that their vote will be split is something to be taken into account, which might change the electoral arithmetic as a consequence.
Do not ignore, either, just how repugnant the message of this party is. There is nothing remotely subtle about its attitude towards those from ethnic minorities. If you think Farage treads a careful line when it comes to racism, Rupert Lowe does not. There is nothing remotely subtle to be found in his position. If this toxicity spreads, we are, whether they win or not, in trouble.
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In Europe there tends to be 2 forms of authoritarian populism. 1 that claims to be liberal and protecting liberal cultural values from foreign ideologies. The 2nd says that liberal values are destroying the cultural identity of the nation. Farage is in group 1 and claims to be anti group 2. There are populists who talk like that they could be in either. Trump and Vance do this. Garage has built part of his identity around the idea that he alone destroyed the BNP.
England’s love affair with the far right has always been there and always will be as long as we accept a society with huge inequalities. The huge advances in communications have helped it along – even more so therefore, today.
You are right to point this out – the Right – far and otherwise – like Neo-liberalism – have no problem with making their own reality and making a project of it like Restore. This is also an act sovereignty that Carl Schmitt identifies- ‘Sovereign is he who makes the exception’.
So, when is the contemporary Left or the progressives going to create their sovereign project, make their reality instead of peppering it with Thatcherism’s unquestioning supplication to the market in a compromise that does not work?
I loath Restore and Reform, but fair do’s to them, they are creating something and have the minerals to go for it. There is something I’m afraid as repugnant as they are, to admire about that – they are not messing around. And there is a clear message and learning for progressives in this, as well as revealing something dark about (modern) democracy which must be grasped if we are to defend or change anything. I’m sorry to sound maybe too philosophical about this, but there is something deeply fundamentally wrong going on here, something that society has lost and is propelling us towards death.
Politics is the first casualty – it has become a practice of monopoly power inculcated with money instead of a process of competition, negotiation and compromise about human reality. You are right. This is a mess and does not bode well.
PSR you make a good point.
The Right have a simple story which appeals to gut reactions and they tend to dismiss reasoned dissent. They have clear objectives however inaccurate or unobtainable they are in reality.
Recently I saw a youtube video (yes I know ) where an American was saying that part of the reason for the MAGA success was that they would accept people with divergent views on, e,g, abortion, religion, LGBT etc. if they were supportive of the rest of the program. Being against the Liberals was the key factor.
The Left in this country tend to be more divided and even campaign against each other.
That is a fascinating post -thank you for signposting this Substack.
And much of the activity is similar to what the Greens did in Manchester.
It came down to massive, local, activity.
The Green party has a lot to take from these elections.
Much is about messaging.
But the thing to take from Great Yarmouth is that they are on the right track with their really strong network of local activists.
There are splits on the right, for sure. And the idea of Reform being outflanked on the right is worrying. As things stand I’d be more concerned about more Conservatives giving up and joining Reform so support coalesces there, but the centre/left remaining split between Labour, the Lib Dems and Greens, letting Reform through with 30%. Tactical voting in single member FPTP constituencies makes things very difficult to predict.
Labour have three years or less to turn things around (or for another party; the Greens or the Lib Dems, or someone else, to supplant them). From where they start, that feels an almost impossible task. Perhaps the best we can hope for is a hung parliament and some sort of rainbow coalition.
The Lib Dems haven’t been part of the centre left since Menzies Campbell resigned, and Labour since Starmer became leader, so in my opinion fears of the left being spilt are overblown.
Thanks for pointing this out Richard – had entirely missed it<p>
I hope it doesn’t work as a ‘proof of concept’ so we don’t get ‘North London First’ candidates . Is it really possible for a national party to operate under different names in different places?.
If they are so openly racist – surely it wont work across the country – but certainly worth keeping an eye on.
So Destore have 10 seats. It begs the question: what will they do? How will they make the (local) lives of voters in Great Yarmouth better? (& what was the turnout?). e.g. how are they going to fix potholes?
High turnouts – up to 50%. They will do nothing.
What does a political party, particularly a new one, look like from the outside? I suggest that if it looks just like you, with members who are like you, you’ll have a hard task to get people to follow you, particularly if you want the aspirational life you see others having. You’ll join a party that that looks to be populated with what you wish to have.
So old long established parties have a problem, their look and feel isn’t attractive, particularly if they’ve been in power and it seems they haven’t delivered. Reform and Restore have that advantage, seemingly. But these are also many of the people who led the charge for Brexit. Is that their weak point? To some, maybe, but not to many.
So how to attack these parties programs and what they stand for? It would be good to know.
I don’t know how much he might be paying to push his ideas, but Rupert Lowe himself is all over my Facebook feed.
I’ve discussed with others that Reform’s “problem” is that they’re now in a race to the bottom with Lowe’s party, who do indeed seem even more extreme. But just as if one political party promises to cut £20 billion off some budget or other, another party will promise to cut £25 billion-so it is with these two parties.
I’m sure Lowe’s efforts are what led to Farage’s latest “we’ll only build deportation camps in Green constituencies” announcement.
Locally I’ve seen plenty of people enthusing over Reform’s council victories while saying that they just want to them to keep the seats warm for Restore, and that Reform’s biggest problem will be that they have too many “foreign” candidates.
I think it’s certainly going to be interesting watching Farage foaming at the mouth over Lowe the imposter for the next few years.
I’ve seen some analysis of the results, and it isn’t as good as it looks at first glance for Reform. Last local elections they got 40% of the vote, this time 34%. The Greens apparently did better than expected with 18%, although I don’t know what their original target was. Wales voted for a socialist party, essentially, which is great news, and Scotland voted heavily for the SNP, although I don’t know how Left they actually are. All in all, there is no guaranteed route to power for Reform, and they are incredibly incompetent and prone to infighting. I do agree that the rise of far right politics, and it’s normalisation is not to be taken lightly, but it feels like they will never fully reflect the majority.
I think 34% seriously overstates it. 24 – 26% looks mire likely.
I had my car serviced last week by a mobile mechanic I have used for several years. He told me that he had to add a extra £30 charge to cover higher petrol prices and I replied ‘Thanks to Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war’. I was shocked when he said he was a Rupert Lowe supporter because all our problems are down to too many immigrants. Think I’ll be looking for a new mechanic for next year’s service….
I would be
John Cleese 39 years ago explaining the advantages of extremism. The paranoid schizoid position. Still makes me smile.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/4281369752119589
He is an extremist
It is genuinely chilling to see how the consensus completely missed the threat that Great Yarmouth First posed, treating them as a mere vanity project while they quietly built something far more dangerous. The fact that they defeated Reform UK so decisively suggests this isn’t just a split in the far-right, but a radical evolution that mainstream observers are ill-equipped to handle.
That is why I have highlighted it
There is a good chance the greens will split, Whatvhas been green about their approach to the recent election? It doesn’t rent itself anymore on environment issues it is more sectarian. I think by the next election there will be a swing by to labour and conservative
How very odd
There is everything Green about what they have been saying
It looks like you need to do some reading
I would like to share this post and indeed you say – You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons. Unfortunately there are no icons. I know I could copy and paste it but this would remove the acknowledgement of your article.
Glad this is solved
Ignore my previous about icons. It’s something to do with Firefox not displaying them. I can see them when I’m using Chrome
OK
I think the main question about the right is whether the Conservatives will form a pact with Reform. The Daily Mail is pushing the idea.