Connor Tomlinson on Restore Britain vs Reform UK – The Battle for Britain’s Christian Right

The British right is splitting. Not over Europe this time – that argument was settled in 2020. The new fault line runs through something more fundamental: identity, faith and the question of what Britain should look like in thirty years.

Connor Tomlinson laid out the terms of this split in a March 11 2026 essay for The European Conservative, expanded on his Substack under the headline “The Battle for Britain’s Christian Bloc Vote.” His analysis is characteristically direct. Rupert Lowe’s new Restore Britain party, expelled from Reform UK after Lowe called for the deportation of Pakistani Muslim grooming gang collaborators, represents the faction of the right that Nigel Farage’s “professionalised” Reform has left behind.

Tomlinson’s framing is vivid. Lowe collects Oliver Cromwell memorabilia. A portrait of the Lord Protector hangs in his office. He named his farm dog Cromwell. “While I’m more a Guy Fawkes man myself,” Tomlinson writes, “it is obvious that Lowe is the Old Noll that Britain needs.”

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Where Reform and Restore Diverge

The policy differences between the two parties are less about economics and more about identity. Reform UK under Farage has moved toward the political mainstream – courting business donors, fielding academic candidates like Matt Goodwin, building infrastructure for a serious parliamentary challenge. Tomlinson argues this professionalisation has come at the cost of the party’s radical edge.

Restore Britain occupies the space Reform vacated. Lowe’s party takes harder positions on immigration, Islam, deportation and the preservation of what Tomlinson calls England’s Christian cultural inheritance. The specific trigger for the split – Lowe’s call to deport grooming gang collaborators – illustrates the boundary that Farage is unwilling to cross publicly.

Tomlinson’s concern is strategic as much as ideological. He argues that Reform’s drift toward respectability has created a vacuum that Restore Britain can fill – particularly among Christian voters who feel that neither Labour, the Conservatives nor Reform speak to their faith-based concerns about cultural change. John Cleese, he notes, can see that “this isn’t a squabble between Judean People’s Fronts.”

The Christian Bloc Question

Tomlinson’s essay raises a question that British politics has historically ignored: is there a Christian conservative voting bloc and can it be mobilised? In the United States the answer has been yes for decades – the evangelical vote is a cornerstone of Republican electoral strategy. In Britain the relationship between faith and politics is more muted.

But Tomlinson argues this is changing. The growth of Islam in Britain has created a counter-reaction among culturally Christian voters who may not attend church regularly but who identify with Christian traditions, institutions and values. Restore Britain is explicitly pitching to these voters. Reform is not – at least not with the same intensity.

The electoral risk is obvious. If Restore Britain stands candidates in constituencies where Reform is competitive, the right-wing vote splits and Labour or the Greens win by default. Tomlinson acknowledges this but argues the alternative – a professionalised Reform that abandons its core voters to court centrist respectability – is worse.

What Tomlinson Represents

Connor Tomlinson at 26 (born 1999) is arguably the most significant young political voice on the British right. His 93,000 X followers, weekly podcast with 93 episodes, columns in The European Conservative and The Critic, and appearances at CPAC and the New Culture Forum have established him as the intellectual bridge between grassroots ethnonationalism and mainstream conservative commentary.

His self-description – “Reactionary Catholic Zoomer” – is deliberately provocative. His arguments about immigration, Islam and British identity occupy territory that most professional commentators avoid. But his audience is growing and the debates he forces into public view – like the suppressed Gove exchange – are increasingly difficult for the establishment to ignore.

The Restore Britain versus Reform split may yet be resolved through electoral pragmatism. But the underlying tension that Tomlinson identifies – between a right that accepts multicultural Britain and a right that rejects it – will define conservative politics for years to come.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Restore Britain? Restore Britain is a political party founded by Rupert Lowe, a former Reform UK MP who was expelled after calling for the deportation of grooming gang collaborators. The party takes harder positions than Reform on immigration, Islam and British identity.

Who is Connor Tomlinson? Connor Tomlinson is a British conservative political commentator, senior contributor to Courage Media, and host of Tomlinson Talks on YouTube and Substack. He is known for his ethnonationalist views on immigration and British identity.

Will Restore Britain split the right-wing vote? This is the central strategic concern. If Restore Britain stands candidates in Reform-competitive seats the right-wing vote could split, benefiting Labour or the Greens. Tomlinson argues the alternative – Reform abandoning its radical base – is a greater long-term risk.