UK entrepreneur makes £500,000 political donation to Restore Britain

The hard-right Restore Britain party has got its first major donation of £500,000 from an IT entrepreneur in a sign it may continue to pose a threat to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.Rupert Lowe, an MP who left Reform UK before starting his own party, announced on Tuesday that the British businessman Simon Galbraith had contributed two donations of £250,000 this year.Galbraith said his company Cade Hill Investments had given the money as he believes that “most British people sense Britain’s decline”.“There is a centralised, bloated and incompetent state which is increasingly undemocratic, British institutions are unfocused on what they should be for and our democracy doesn’t represent the interests and opinions of many,” he said in a statement. “Things are worse than most people realise, but the opportunity is much greater than everyone thinks too. If Restore win power, I think it will spark a British renaissance.”Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe on the byelection campaign trail in Makerfield earlier this year. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The GuardianThe sum is small compared with the millions given to Farage’s party by the crypto billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo, as well as further millions pledged by the Iranian-born billionaire Sasan Ghandehari.However, Restore Britain’s ability to raise a substantial sum from a private donor will improve its potential to challenge Reform UK from the right in targeted areas. The party has previously said it will field a candidate against Farage if he faces a second bylection in Clacton after the standards investigation into his finances is concluded.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHowever, Lowe also offered an olive branch to Farage in August suggesting the parties could put aside their differences and work together on “mass deportation” of illegal migrants “including women and children”, tougher rules on legal migration, a ban on halal and kosher slaughter, the burqa, cousin marriage and sharia courts, and a referendum on the death penalty. He also called for the exclusion of former Tory ministers from any future cabinet.In response, Farage suggested Lowe was not making a credible “offer” and accused him of “screaming” and “threatening” colleagues when he was in the party ranks.Announcing Restore’s new donation, Lowe said: “I am delighted to announce that British entrepreneur Simon Galbraith has chosen to support Restore Britain, starting with two separate donations totalling £500,000 to our party – I would like to sincerely thank Simon on behalf of our party and our membership.”