Monthly Briefing: Restore and Reform war show deep fissures unresolved on the right

In Brief

• Fascist activist Steve Laws has resigned from Restore Britain citing the mistreatment of neo-nazi members by Restore’s leadership
• Reform UK has been hit by a devastating investigation exposing senior figures, including Nigel Farage and James Orr, seemingly accepting undeclared foreign donations.
• In Doncaster far right activists stormed a church and confronted a vicar who they accused of drowning out their speeches with bell ringing
• Tommy Robinson is being sued by a native Glasgow man who he falsely accused of filming children in a park. 
• Racist rioting broke out in Thetford with rioters targetting the homes of asylum seekers.
• RF are hosting a new podcast, the RF podcast. Find the new episode on all the places you get podcasts. 

 RF Podcast

Red Flare is now hosting a new podcast, called the Red Flare Podcast, hosted by Alex from 12 Rules for What. If you are already subscribed to 12 Rules you will have seen the change on your feed already. Alex will continue the interviews but will also be hosting premium content directly on the website, so do look out for that in the future! The new episode is embedded here but is also available on all the podcast providers.

In this episode Alex interviews Daniel Trilling, author of the new book If We Tolerate This, on the broad changes in the British far right and how far-right rhetoric has been mainstreamed. 

Reform and Restore

Earlier this month signs of rapprochement between Reform UK and Restore Britain were quickly dashed. Restore leader Rupert Lowe, expelled from Reform following a falling out with Nigel Farage had said the parties should “put our differences aside and cooperate for the good of the country that we all love”.  Farage for his part rejected the overture as bad faith, ruling out any official merging whilst co-founders who subscribe to “the old theory that we probably haven’t heard in this country since 1936” remained in leadership - a reference to Restore leadership figure Charlie Downes. Restore is firmly positioned to Reform’s right and has published policy documents outlining plans for unprecedented mass deportations. Restore’s leadership has expressed little concern about the presence of far-right and fascist activists among its membership, and indeed leaders in the UK fascist scene have urged their followers to join Restore.

The collapse of the Conservative party in the 2024 general election had given Reform UK the opportunity to become the biggest party on the right, and therefore the default challenger to Labour at the next general election. Reform has also been at the heart of a realignment on the right - a decline of moderate conservatism and a radicalisation around the UK’s borders and asylum regime. This realignment has precipitated a collapse of distinctions between the mainstream right, far right and fascism.

At present any formal pact appears unlikely and Restore now presents a real problem for Reform. It has been unable to kill off the Conservative party, who retain strong institutional backing and well established party apparatus, and to its right Restore have been able to convince some voters that they are less bound by establishment shibboleths and present a radical alternative to the status quo.

Reform has another problem. Its growth, and indeed the realignment on the right, has been facilitated by a strong and well funded right wing media landscape, across newspapers, alternative news channels, independent news sites and, of course, X. (Terms like ‘independent’ and ‘alternative’ are misnomers here. GB News and Unherd, as one example, are bankrolled by the right wing hedge fund manager Paul Marshall.) This has given voice to a plethora of right wing and far right commentators that have supported a range of right wing policies and positions on culture war issues. Reform has also received a significant platform on the BBC where it has often received uncritical coverage. This sympathetic media environment has changed dramatically in recent months as revelations on Reform funding have sparked serious scrutiny from all sections of the press, including right wing outlets like The Times and The Telegraph.

Supporters of Restore have presented the party as an ascendent and disruptive force that could supplant Reform, but internal disputes have become increasingly vitriolic, threatening to stall the party’s growth. Neo-Nazis including current and former members of PA and Homeland have flocked to Restore, but some of the most prominent voices on the fascist fringes seem unable to coexist with the more mainstream conservative faction. Orla Minihane, named by Rupert Lowe as “spokeswoman for the safety of women and children”, came under fire for saying in a speech that as well as white girls, those from ethnic minorities also need protection from sexual exploitation. One of the most high-profile hardliners was Steve Laws, founder of Remigration Now and former member of Homeland, who had joined Restore soon after its formation and claimed to have regular access to the party’s leadership. After sustained public criticism of Lowe and recently clashing with Restore’s transport spokesman Howard Cox, on 29 August Laws announced his resignation from the party, stating that “It has been one failure after another and at this stage it’s just a humiliation ritual”. 

Charlie Downes, the campaigns director and spokesman for Restore Britain, and a figurehead for the more extreme elements, remains in post. Farage had made his sacking a condition of Reform working with Restore but Lowe had responded that “putting a young Christian man out of work, just as he is looking to build his life and start a family” is “simply not how I operate”. Downes was detained at the US-Canada border on 28 August while travelling to address a conference in Ontario of the far-right Dominion Society, described by Sam Wilkes aka Zoomer Historian as “essentially a Homeland ripoff at launch”.

Reform and Restore will remain at odds. Farage’s demand for the expulsion of Charlie Downes has been ruled out by Lowe. Similarly it is inconceivable that Reform will accede to Lowe’s demand for Reform to bar former Conservative MPs from a future Reform government. The Conservative party has seemingly benefited from Reform’s recent misfortune, with the party recently polling ahead of Reform for the first time in over 18 months. 

Patriotic Alternative

This month our round-up of PA activity is more discursive than usual because at the end of August Hope Not Hate published an article about Patriotic Alternative declaring the party to be in decline. Their grounds for this view are mainly political and organisational but also concern personnel, and may reframe the way in which PA is viewed. PA’s decline is not a foregone conclusion, but it leads to a reconsideration of how we view the party, as it tries to negotiate the ever more crowded fascist scene in Britain. 

What is PA’s purpose? Although HNH do not ask the question outright, they raise the way in which Restore Britain offers a more credible route to mainstream influence. Restore has adopted key elements of PA’s central message about ‘replacement’ of the white population and the need for ‘remigration’. Restore has also garnered a membership of over 100,000, an MP and dozens of councillors – not to mention the backing of Elon Musk, who relentlessly boosts the party's leader Rupert Lowe on X. Restore’s seizure of PA’s political positions leaves Collett’s organisation in a tricky spot. Collett has neither the money, charisma nor relative respectability enjoyed by Rupert Lowe, shortcomings which will matter more as PA face up to the difficulty of the far right becoming ever closer to the mainstream. Although PA has become a staple presence at anti-migrant protests, their presence does not translate into greater influence or significance as they often parachute in to attend demonstrations called by other groups, becoming part of the background instead of the guiding light. 

But aside from the political difficulties with which PA is faced, they are beset by organisational and personnel issues too. HNH note that PA has lost a number of key figures through imprisonment, death and resignation, with the departure of former Welsh organiser Jeff Marsh highlighted as a particularly damaging loss due to his importance to their street activism.  

It may be the case that PA is in decline. It is hard to see PA growing or increasing its influence to a significant extent at a time when its core politics have been adopted by a party such as Restore, and indeed when their racist narratives (minus the explicit ethnonationalism) are frequently voiced in wider politics. We believe it is still premature to count out PA. Collett is a true believer who supports himself off a global audience of fascists who watch his livestreams, and as a content creator his income is secured. He has urged his followers to join bigger parties, first Reform and now Restore, using them to get fascist politics into the mainstream, and has often eschewed the political path in favour of white nationalist community building and international networking. 

At the end of July, Mark Collett flew to Sweden to address a ‘Free Sweden’ event. The Swedish authorities detained him and deported him for being ‘a threat to public order, the fabric of society and the values on which Sweden and Europe are built’. He is now banned from the Schengen Group of countries – 23 out of 25 EU member states and a further 4 non-EU countries – for the next 15 years. 

On 15 August PA Scotland activists attended the Right Unite event outside the Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk, opposing the housing of asylum seekers there and marking the first anniversary of the demonstration. On 22 August PA Scotland attended another demonstration against the housing of asylum seekers in hotels. This weekend was the turn of the ‘Perth Peaceful Protest’, outside the Queens Hotel in Perth.  

On the penultimate weekend of August members of PA Wales visited Abergavenny. The itinerary included the castle, museum, and the town’s tenth-century priory. The tour subsequently went to the Priory Holy Well and the Grosmont and Skenfrith castles. 

On 1 August activists from PA South East and Remigration Now met in Surrey, for a banner drop on the M25 to mark Indigenous People’s Day. The banners dropped bore the slogans ‘White Lives Matter’ and ‘End the Invasion, Defend Our Borders’. Over the same weekend, activists from PA South East camped at and helped out with developments at the Woodlander Initiative plot near Rye in East Sussex. Simon Birkett, founder of the Woodlander Initiative, appeared on the Patriotic Weekly Review on 12 August. Also on the penultimate weekend in August, PA East Midlands attended a demonstration in Long Eaton at the invitation of the Long Eaton Flag Men, against hotel chain Best Western’s involvement in providing accommodation to asylum seekers.  

Street Protests

On 8 August 2026, Bristol Rises held a march through Bristol city centre. Bristol Rises is one of the successor organisations to which the ostensibly defunct Bristol Patriots fell into activity after a protest in March. The protest was controversial because of the attendance of neo-Nazi provocateur Ryan Ferguson who shouted antisemitic abuse at Jewish antifascists. However, Ferguson was invited back to the march on the 8th and welcomed by Bristol Rises. Around 150 people attended the Bristol Rises demonstration. The numbers were swelled by “patriot” groups from the south and south west, including Southampton Patriots. Avon and Somerset police, using police mutual aid, drafted in many officers from other forces, including Hertfordshire, the Met and City of London Police. They used these numbers to facilitate the Bristol Rises march, using violence against the 300 antifascists who had assembled to counter protest. The far right protesters were unable to reach a migrant hotel on Welsh back, and were stuck on Bristol bridge due to being blocked by police and counter protesters. One of the attendees, Jane Counsel, who is registered as a nurse, attacked a journalist who was interviewing Restore Britain activist Alex Jardine. Counsel accused the journalist of being a “lefty” and kicked the journalist’s camera equipment as well as assaulting her. The police arrested 10 people, including antifascists wearing face coverings.

In Doncaster a vicar was confronted by far right activists who had stormed Doncaster Minster after a protest organised by Unite the Right UK, organised on 29 August. Rev Canon Dr Richard Firth had earlier attended an anti-racist counter protest. Firth needed to be protected by police officers from the group, who were later condemned for ‘bullying one of our church and community leaders in Doncaster’ by a spokesperson for Doncaster Stand Up to Racism. 

On 8 August PA held a demonstration in Tamworth to commemorate Henry Nowak, who was killed in Southampton. Despite the great effort put into building the event only about 70 people turned up, and many of those came from other groups including the British Movement, Remigration Now, White Vanguard and the Active Clubs. Searchlight estimated that less than half those present were from PA. After the riots in Tamworth two years ago the town may have seemed a likely place for PA to make inroads, so the lacklustre attendance was a disappointment for them. 

The start of August saw three nights of violent anti-immigration protests in Thetford, Norfolk, attracting up to 200 people. Protestors gathered outside, egged the windows and attempted to enter the homes of suspected asylum-seekers, with police reporting they had removed five residents for their own safety. The disorder followed weeks of agitation from influencers and politicians against Home Office plans to house asylum seekers at the former RAF Barnham site, around three miles from Thetford, just over the county border in Suffolk.

As of the end of August, there have been 20 arrests for the unrest in Thetford, including ones for racially aggravated crimes. A Serco employee, initially arrested, charged and remanded in connection to releasing addresses of local HMOs, was subsequently released and the criminal case dropped after police  said that officers had “identified additional evidence which undermined the case”.

On 8 August an anti-migrant demonstration in Broadstairs, Kent, organised by Thanet Patriots, attracted around 150 protestors. Speakers included Dan (DMO) from Thanet Patriots, Victoria Nash (Gemini Girl) of Pink Ladies splinter group Churchill’s Angels and Adrian Clark, a scaffolder from Ramsgate with a string of convictions for violence.

The following weekend in Maidstone, 100 people attended a march called by the hardline Kent Nationalist Movement (KNM) led by Harry Hilden from Faversham and Dean Phillpot from Bexley, with Britain First leader Paul Golding as a speaker. The march, aimed at the Reform-run Kent County Council in response to their providing care for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, saw a turnout diminished in size from the previous Maidstone outing and was opposed by a coalition of anti-racist groups.

Britain First had a relatively quiet month, with single-figure turnouts at protests outside the site of a proposed mosque, a halal meat distributor and a ‘Sharia Court’. A former member of Paul Golding’s security team, James White, was jailed for 24 years this month after being found guilty of a litany of violent offences including rape and assault by penetration.

On 29 August, UKIP leader Nick Tenconi led a small procession from Hyde Park Corner in London, with strict conditions put in place by the Met. The protest was opposed by a significantly larger group of anti-racists, and there were some brief scuffles between the groups. 

Elsewhere

A joint report from Novara Media and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has revealed the identity of two co-founders of the Node Project, a previously anonymous collective behind the far right AI rapper Danny Bones. Denver Bamber, a music producer who has worked with a slew of successful Black UK artists, and Theo Blacklege, an animator, admitted being behind the project. The pair claimed Bones was apolitical, despite having produced songs for far-right party Advance UK and for prominent far-right influencer Tommy Robinson. 

Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a former neo-nazi activist who has been convicted for a litany of race hate offences, including the harassment of then Labour MP Luciana Berger for which he received a prison sentence, has been offered a position as an anti-extremism adviser for Kemi Badenoch. This came after he relinquished his candidacy to be a Conservative councillor in Somerset after uproar over his selection. Badenoch has long been a fan of the Crewkerne Gazette, having sent Bonehill-Paine a christmas card prior to his unmasking.  Bonehill-Paine, 33, is the creator of the right wing AI video seriesThe Crewkerne Gazette, which he ran anonymously before being exposed by Channel 4 News. Bonehill-Paine has since claimed to have renounced his antisemitic beliefs and to now hold a ‘deep affection for Israel.’ having taken courses with the government’s counter-extremism PREVENT initiative. Despite this, Bonehill-Paine has promoted anti-migrant ‘stop the boats’ and has continued to indulge in islamophobia.

Patriot Platform, the new outfit of Danny Tommo (real name Daniel Thomas), held an underwhelming ‘National Recruitment Day’ on a hill outside Coventry, attracting around 200 people. Tommy Robinson pledged his attendance but failed to turn up. The nature of the project is still unclear; its social media displays right-wing memes and AI slop, as well as boosting content from regional ‘Patriot’ groups, but its goals are unclear beyond vague statements about brotherhood and togetherness. On 27 August Thomas appeared in court in Margate facing a range of charges related to his attempts to film asylum seekers landing in Dover; his next hearing is in October.

At a Scottish Defence League (SDL) protest on Princes Street in the centre of Edinburgh, attendees displayed the flags of proscribed loyalist groups and Neo-Nazis. One flag displayed the logos of the Ulster Freedom Fighters and Ulster Defence Association - paramilitary groups banned under terror laws - and another promoted the groups Blood and Honour (B&H) and Combat 18. Shows of support for these groups are not illegal in the UK, though B&H has had its assets frozen as a group suspected of links to terrorism. The SDL were joined by members of the North West Infidels, another group that was contemporaneous with the English Defence League (EDL) but with more extreme views than the EDL and often appearing alongside explicitly Nazi groups.

Hope Not Hate revealed this month that Jimmy Hey, martial arts instructor and former activist with neo-Nazi groups National Action (NA) and Misanthropic Division, has conducted self defence training sessions with the Guardians of Great Harwood (GGH), a “community crime prevention group” in Lancashire. Hey attended a number of protests with NA before their 2016 proscription, including the White Man Marches in Newcastle and Liverpool, and trained NA members in martial arts at APEX gym, where he has recently trained GGH members.

Oldspeak bookshop in Long Melford, Suffolk, has closed its doors. Opened just over a year ago in this small, rural Suffolk town, and billed as “Britain’s only centre-right bookshop” by its owner Joanne May, it quickly became clear that “centre-right” was slightly underselling their political interests. Oldspeak listed, among many traditionally conservative texts, a range of far-right books too, including core fascist texts ‘The Camp of the Saints’ (advertised with a 10% code ‘MILLIONSMUSTGO’), ‘The Turner Diaries’ and the more recent ‘Remigration’ by Martin Sellner (banned from entering the UK in 2018 for his role in Generation Identity). The closure was announced on X on 7th August 2026, and according to May, was the result of her customer service suffering thanks to the “constant hostility” she experienced. A voluntary strike-off has been applied for, accounts have yet to be filed with Companies House and a request by local estate agents to remove the ‘Remigration Now’ flags flying from the outside of the shop were met with hostility. May has received support from various far-right figures and says she intends to look for friendlier premises and to continue selling books online. 

A Glasgow man targeted by the far right for confronting a far right protest is set to sue far-right influencer Tommy Robinson after Robinson accused him of ‘filming kids in a park.’ Quroum Beg, a father of three and a Glasgow native has launched a fundraiser and is represented by a prominent Scottish defamation law firm. Beg has said after footage of himself had circulated online he received death threats. Robinson initially apologised for his initial tweet, before backtracking the next day, blaming an admin for the post. 

International

In Germany, eight young neo-Nazis have been jailed after a campaign of arson and bomb attacks on refugee accommodation and buildings linked to left-wing organisations. The defendants, the youngest only 15 at the time of the first offence, belonged to the group “Last Wave of Defence”.

Polls suggest that the far-right AfD party could take control of Saxony-Anhalt in the upcoming state elections, with serious implications for cultural institutions in receipt of public funding. The party has pledged to cut funding for “anti-German art”, though it is unclear what would fall within this category, and has consistently criticised Germany’s culture of remembrance and expressed a wish for a more positive narrative of Germany’s past.

Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported from the US to the UK. Yiannopoulos had been a vocal supporter of Donald Trump and was associated with the alt-right; he had more recently become more critical of Trump but supported Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, arguing for “total legal immunity for ICE agents when they're on duty” and calling for "on the spot deportation for anyone who can't prove they are in the US legally". Yiannopoulos was arrested by ICE agents at an airport in New Orleans, the Department of Homeland Security stating that he had and outstayed his visa, and he was deported the following day. Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, a former ally of Yiannopoulos, claimed to have tipped off authorities about his immigration status.