David Vance SubstackRead More
When Advance UK and Restore Britain were started, I gave a bit of money to both as I felt that Reform needed to toughen up and these new start ups might be one way to achieve that. I liked Ben Habib and Rupert Lowe and believed they offered something new.
I was wrong and here’s my reasoning.
Both Ben Habib and Rupert Lowe claimed they had been treated very badly by Nigel Farage whilst they had all been in Reform. I don’t know enough about Ben’s case to say much but I am satisfied that the Lowe’s case is not as cut and dried as he and his associates suggest. But I hate personality politics and I don’t want to be dragged into any of it.
However within a year of Ben Habib launching Advance UK, it has folded. That just shows just how hard it it to build a new Party and even with Elon Musk pushing it, it absolutely crashed at the polls, losing deposits and being beaten by the Monster Raving Looney Party on one occasion. Ben tried but he failed and now he holds a semi-detached position from Restore.
Yesterday, Ben posted the following on his X account.
I totally disagree with this and it reeks of bitterness. I told Ben so.
Today, Ben continues to push out critical remarks about Farage and can’t seem to see that he is just sounding like an echo of Badenoch/Starmer/Davey/Lowe. It’s cringe.
Which brings us to Rupert Lowe and Restore Britain. Rupert Lowe’s X account has followed me for years but I see that in recent days I have been unfollowed. I will cope. You probably all understand that he has an individual who runs that account for him so many of the things that you read may not actually be him. Regardless, this is what “he” had to say yesterday..
The language used is almost identical to that of Kemi Badenoch here.
It makes me start to wonder if the Restore Britain project might be more accurately called the Restore the Conservatives project? By eating into the Reform vote, particularly in Constituencies where margins are tight, Restore may benefit the Conservatives. If you look at what happened in Aberdeen South, Restore chose not to even field a candidate to allow the Conservatives a free run. I’m not arguing that was the wrong thing to do, but they DID stand in Makerfield. And they will do so in Clacton, later this year. Why the difference? It is suspicious.
During the Makerfield By Election, the Restore Britain fan club told us that they could actually win it! Any questioning of this hyperbole was met with on-line fury, as I found out. But the REAL world is not the same as on-line world.
I suspect that time will prove this to Rupert Lowe and Ben Habib.
