Reform & Restore fight over who lost Makerfield worse

In the Makerfield by-election, the three parties of the right failed to win enough votes between them to match Labour’s result. Rather than reflecting on what this means, however, Reform UK and Restore Britain have decided to argue over who lost hardest:

You got less than the BNP in 2010.

You threw everything you had at it, day and night and got only 3000 votes.

It was an unmitigated disaster. https://t.co/rSi63Fe6Sp

— Rt Hon Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) June 19, 2026

Come on now, there’s no need to argue!

You’re all losers, and that’s what matters.

Let them fight

The rise of Reform UK has seen the Conservatives fall from being the most successful party in Europe to one which just failed to win its deposit back in the Makerfield by-election. Farage’s party has a problem, however, and it’s that Restore Britain is trying to do the same thing to Reform that Reform did to the Tories.

As we reported, Nigel Farage blamed right-wing voters for choosing Rupert Lowe’s party over his own:

My response to the Makerfield by-election result. pic.twitter.com/aESL0zbDKm

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) June 19, 2026

Farage asked these voters “what do you want?”; here’s what we told him:

They want a party which more obviously follows through on the bigoted rhetoric, Nigel; not a party which slags off the Tories and whips up prejudice against minorities only to accept Tories of colour into their ranks

Farage’s whiny, bitter response isn’t a strong look, and Restore is capitalising on that:

Farage’s first reaction to the result is to arrogantly patronise Restore Britain voters in a video just released.

It won’t work.

— Restore Britain (@RestoreBritain) June 19, 2026

As highlighted above, Reform’s criticism of Restore is that they polled lower than the far-right British National Party did in 2010:

pic.twitter.com/gLd59s1law

— Restore Sussex (unofficial) (@Restore_1066) June 20, 2026

Restore voters have a counter to this which is arguably pretty strong:

We didn’t win our 1st election – fair enough. But a hell of a result for a 180 day old!

Farage took 10yrs, 5 byelection to get 3rd.

We did it in 4 months.

Took him 18 more yrs to win a seat.

We’re not happy that Restore has grown so fast, but it is undeniable that it has.

Restore is also highlighting that Reform isn’t best placed to make the ‘don’t split the vote‘ argument given what Reform did to the Tories:

You aren't entitled to our votes, Paul. https://t.co/bvfvAklBVz

— Carl Benjamin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@Sargon_of_Akkad) June 18, 2026

Some of the other right-on-right violence is just funny, like Restore’s Katie Hopkins going all in on Reform’s Isabel Oakeshott:

TEMU Kate Adie is back from the front lines of Dubai (her luxury high rise) to slander RESTORE voters.

I fear if Temu Kate Adie cries, tears will come out from behind her ears. pic.twitter.com/6zy87IATeF

— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) June 19, 2026

Both of these women are dreadful, and although we’re more than happy to point that out, it saves us a job when they attack each other.

Far right on the night

Suella Braverman’s husband described Reform as a party of the “centre right”:

Do not be fooled. The Restore Britain Party exists for one purpose: to divide the centre right vote, weaken Reform, and clear a path for the Conservatives back into power at the next General Election. That is the strategy. Everything else is theatre.

— Rael Braverman (@raelbrav) June 18, 2026

As we reported, Reform threatened to build detention centres in areas which don’t vote for Reform:

Reform has denied its new policy constitutes a ‘threat’. The reason it’s being interpreted as one is because Reform has argued people shouldn’t want detention centres in their area. Therefore, it’s clearly a threat by the party’s own logic.

This is not ‘centre-right’ politics.

And the reason Reform is losing voters to Restore is because the latter party is taking Farage’s far-right rhetoric to its logical endpoint.

Braverman also said this:

Next time predict winning the election, genius https://t.co/gfCK1eLMPO

— Willem Moore (@willem_moore_uk) June 19, 2026

Reform tactics

As we reported, Reform has been absolutely rinsed by tactical voting in successive by-elections, including Caerphilly, Gorton & Denton, and Makerfield. The problem is now twofold for them, in that:

• Centre-to-left-leaning voters are prepared to vote tactically to keep Reform out.
• Right-wing voters are not prepared to vote tactically, and will simply go with their party of choice – be it Reform, Restore, or the Tories.

As More in Common showed:

To be fair to right-wing stubbornness, it has got them what they want in the past. The reason Brexit happened is because right-wing voters showed they were willing to vote for UKIP unless the Tories backed the EU Referendum. And there are instances in which the left would do better in the long run if we consistently voted in line with our convictions.

To be fair, there are signs the left have learned this. The Greens managed to unseat Labour in Gorton & Denton after all, and with a little nerve, they might repeat the same move in the Greater Manchester mayor race:

Who's feeling fired up for the Greens to win the Mayor of Manchester?

This is it. It's on!

💚🚀https://t.co/0qbagSvIYp

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) June 20, 2026

Featured image via The Canary