Who is Rupert Lowe? Restore Britain leader slammed for Joe Rogan comments

Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Mr Lowe was asked by the US podcaster about gun control.

"They don't want the public to have guns," he said, explaining that handguns had been banned after the 1996 Dunblane in which 17 people were killed in a school by Thomas Watt Hamilton - who also killed himself.

"One murder?" Rogan said in disbelief.

"One murder," Mr Lowe confirmed.

Kenny Ross, who lost his five-year-old daughter Joanna in what was Britain's deadliest mass shooting, told LBC: "The ignorance of some people when it comes to the Dunblane massacre... they don't realise how devastating it was and how we have a far safer society because there is no longer private gun ownership."

Mr Lowe has ben defended by his party Restore Britain, and a spokesman said: “Rupert was clearly referring to one incident.”

Elected Great Yarmouth MP for Reform in 2024, the businessman left Nigel Farage’s outfit last year and has since been an independent before announcing his own party.

Restore Britain was initially conceived as a pressure group, but Mr Lowe has stepped up his ambitions and appears willing to challenge his old party for the space on the right.

Also this week, he opted against standing any candidates for Restore against his old boss Mr Farage in the Clacton by-election.

But who is Rupert Lowe and what does Restore stand for?

Who is Rupert Lowe?

Ruper Lowe, 68, is a right-wing politician and businessman who was best known as the chairman of Southampton football club before his entry into politics.

The married father-of-four worked in banking during the 1980s and 1990s, companies he worked for in London including Morgan Grenfell, Deutsche Bank and Barings Bank. From there he also set up a nursing home business called Secure Retirements.

He became chairman of Southampton in the mid 1990s and during his tenure, the club went through several managers but reached the 2003 FA Cup final and completed its move from The Dell stadium to the larger St Mary’s. He caused a stir shortly after this, however, by appointing former England rugby Clive Woodward as an advisor and hiring Harry Redknapp, manager of the Saints’ bitter rivals Portsmouth, as manager to help them out of a relegation scrap. Southampton were relegated in 2004 and Lowe resigned in 2006, returning briefly in 2008.

In 2012, he bought Garforth Town and installed Brazilian- influenced visionary Simon Clifford, who had run football schools, as the manager, but he left the project in 2015.

In the meantime, Lowe had been developing an interest in politics - initially with the Conservative Party, with whom he was a member until 1993.

He stayed largely on the sidelines until committing to Reform UK in 2019 and became an MEP that year before the UK left the European Union. He then became MP for Great Yarmouth in the 2024 general election.

Lowe’s brief time as a Reform MP was marred by his deteriorating relationship with the party’s leader Nigel Farage, whom he had initially supported in wake of criticism from Elon Musk, but later said in an interview that it was “too early to tell” if he would make a good prime minister.

In March 2025, he was accused of bullying, using offensive language and "threats of physical violence" against Reform Chairman Zia Yusuf.

He then left Reform and took a swipe at Farage, who he said had become an enemy on his own team. Lowe said: "I don’t care about money or fame. I’ve done that. I am not interested. I donate my entire net MP salary to local charities. It is not about any of that.

"I want to change Britain. And I mean radical change. That remains my sole aim.”

A report later found “credible evidence” that Lowe had contributed to a 'toxic' office culture and he underwent criticism for confusing a team of rowers with illegal migrants.

In further controversy, he was filmed making an antisemitic comment during a meeting in parliament.

"I don’t recall saying that, but if it was said, it was clearly a joke as anybody reading it can understand,” Mr Lowe said in response to the antisemitism allegation, while he did not apologise to the rowers, he did make a £1,000 donation to a charity they were supporting.

What is Restore Britain?

While an independent MP, Lowe announced in June 2025 that he would be launching a new political movement called Restore Britain. In a long write-up on his website, he states his main ideologies and intentions are:

For

• Mass deportation of illegal immigrants and a near-total halt on legal immigration,
• Scrapping the asylum system entirely,
• Tax cuts across income, corporation, VAT, and stamp duty,
• Welfare conditioned on willingness to work, with foreign nationals stripped of benefits entirely,
• Domestic energy production and reindustrialisation,
• Affirming “Britain's Christian cultural identity” and heritage,
• Private prosecutions of those involved in the “grooming gang scandal”

Against:

• Mass immigration and what he calls "Islamification" of Britain,
• Halal/kosher slaughter, the burqa, and Sharia courts,
• The existing political establishment and all major parties,
• The current welfare and asylum systems,
• Heavy regulation on businesses,
• A culture of institutional risk-aversion and lack of accountability.

The policies are strongly nationalist and socially conservative, described as far-right, with Restore appearing to want to directly challenge Reform UK’s direction.

In February 2026, Lowe announced that what was started as a pressure group would now operate as a "national political party” and stood a candidate in the Makerfield by-election.

As of July 2026, Restore has 32 British councillors and Lowe is the sole MP.