Farage rules out talks with Lowe unless rival expels controversial aide

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LONDON — Nigel Farage ruled out entering talks with right-wing rival Rupert Lowe Monday — unless Lowe moves to expel a controversial ally.

The pathway to power for Farage’s Reform UK was already narrowing before new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s takeover aided a polling bounce for the governing Labour Party.

While still polling in the single digits, Rupert Lowe’s splinter party has been proving it can eat into a significant chunk of Reform’s vote. Lowe formed Restore Britain after being kicked out of Reform — but he has been, at least ostensibly, dangling an olive branch for Farage to grasp in recent weeks.

On Monday the prospect of the two warring factions signing a make-up pact seemed to be at an impasse.

Farage used a press conference in Westminster to publicly state a new condition for holding discussions with “that party,” as he referred to Restore. Lowe must, he said, kick out Restore’s co-founder — a move Lowe has already rejected .

“I’m always happy to meet people and talk to people — within reason,” Farage said when asked by POLITICO what his conditions for entering talks with Lowe would be.

Leader of Restore Britain Rupert Lowe MP speaks to the media where votes were being counted at The Edge on June 18, 2026 in Wigan. | Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images

“But I do think it’s fair to say that there are one or two people in the orbit of the upper echelons of that party who, if I sat down and talked to, I think our members and our voters would be utterly shocked that I’d done it,” he added.

“So we can talk to Rupert Lowe — that’s fine. But when you have co-founders, etcetera, putting out what I would call the ‘old theory’ — the old theory that we probably haven’t heard in this country since 1936 — and you have other adjacent publicly-supportive people demanding that all Jews be removed from the country, just as an example…

“So the condition I would put on it is those people would have to be out of the inner circle — and I think that for me would be the only way we could sensibly proceed.”

The co-founder Farage referred to is Charlie Downes, who was this month accused of implying that Farage had been “ bought ” by Jewish supporters. Campaigners against anti-semitism accused Downes of perpetuating the “oldest smear” against Jewish people.

Farage’s attack on “publicly-supportive people demanding that all Jews be removed from the country” is meanwhile a reference to Steve Laws, a backer of Restore Britain who is an advocate of “ total remigration .” Lowe told POLITICO in June that Laws plans “no part in our decision-making process,” although Lowe said he is “very welcome” to support the party.

Lowe had already indicated his opposition to booting out Downes after the Telegraph first reported Farage’s rejection of talks. “Farage and Reform have also said that Restore Britain must outright sack Charlie Downes — putting a young Christian man out of work, just as he is looking to build his life and start a family,” Lowe wrote on X . “That is simply not how I operate.”

While still polling in the single digits, Rupert Lowe’s splinter party has been proving it can eat into a significant chunk of Reform’s vote. | Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images

It’s the latest twist in a convoluted saga that is commanding attention on the right of British politics.

Lowe last week offered to put “ past disagreements ” with Farage aside so that the pair can work together. But he set five conditions for doing so, including the exclusion of Conservative defectors to Reform from a future Farage cabinet.

Prisons push

Farage’s comments came at a press conference he held to add to pressure on the new prime minister over Britain’s prisons, which have in recent years been hovering around breaking point.

Farage said Reform UK will begin talks with El Salvador about renting prison space so a future government he leads could deport all foreign prisoners to serve their sentences abroad — an echo of Donald Trump’s controversial policy for prisoners from the U.S.

Other possible countries that could forge similar deals, Farage suggested, are Kosovo, as well as Estonia or Lithuania.

Reform claimed the plans would free up 10,000 spaces in U.K. prisons. However, nearly a third of foreign nationals in detention are on remand, meaning they haven’t been convicted of a crime and are awaiting trial.

Pressed about the disparity, home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf told POLITICO: “That’s not the gotcha that you might think it is.

“The vast majority of those people end up being convicted — so in terms of the practical plan that we’ve laid out, it makes no difference.”