Labour stole our 'Starmer out' message, says Nigel Farage as he urges voters to ditch support for rivals Restore

The Daily Mail ^ | 19 Jun 2026 | SAM MERRIMAN

[MinorityRepublican]

Nigel Farage admitted that Reform fell victim to Labour adopting his 'get Keir Starmer out' message in Makerfield.

The Reform leader said he was 'disappointed' as local plumber Robert Kenyon picked up 16,000 votes – 2,000 short of predictions.

And he issued a plea to supporters of Rupert Lowe's hard-Right Restore Britain – asking them to 'think again' about backing his party in future.

Mr Kenyon, whose campaign was dogged by old social media posts, came second in the ballot with 35 per cent of the vote, finishing 20 percentage points behind former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.

Mr Burnham increased Labour's vote share compared to the 2024 general election in a significant blow to Reform – which had picked up every council seat in the constituency in May's local elections.

In a video message on social media, Mr Farage, who was in the area but did not attend the count, was conciliatory in defeat, saying Mr Burnham had secured a 'dramatic, emphatic win, with a vote share no-one could quite see coming'.

The 'very popular local mayor', he said, had been successful with 'vote Burnham, get Starmer out, which of course was our campaign message leading up to the local elections on May 7', leaving Reform 'hoist with our own petard'.

And in a plea to voters who backed rivals Restore Britain, Mr Farage said: 'As for the Reform vote share, well, I thought we would get 18,000 votes, we got just shy of 16,000 so I'm disappointed by that, no question about it.

'But I would say this: there's a couple of thousand voters there who would normally have gone out and voted Reform that voted Restore, and I would say directly to them, what do you want?'

---

TOPICS: United Kingdom
KEYWORDS:

[mbrfl]

Labour wants Starmer out for different reasons than Reform does. Starmer’s Labour critics just want to change the optics of the Starmer government, not depart from its basic policy positions. It’s Farage’s responsibility to communicate that to the public if he wants to stay on top of the narrative. The problem with Farage is he came late to the culture issue. He rode to prominence on Brexit, which is all well and good, but for most of his career, until recently, he ran away from the immigration issue. That’s a big reason for the rise of Restore.

Farage needs to get over his pride and try to make some sort of alliance with Restore, if at all possible. I’m not talking about a merger of the two parties, but they should try to put bruised egos aside and coordinate amongst themselves if possible, for the good of their country. Theirs is, after all, a parliamentary democracy in which ruling coalitions can be formed.

[MinorityRepublican]

The problem with Farage is he came late to the culture issue. He rode to prominence on Brexit, which is all well and good, but for most of his career, until recently, he ran away from the immigration issue. That’s a big reason for the rise of Restore.

Nigel Farage is a traditional "Tory" who isn't open borders and advocate for British sovereignty.

But he isn't "far-right".

[gibsonguy]

Farage is clueless and England is cooked. You are exactly right, If Nigel really had what it takes he would find a way to ally with Restore. No chance of that happening so l think it is over.

[Mr. Blond]

Reform is the Retirement Home For Tories. He’ll bid to merge them, just as the Canadian Reform Party merged with the Progressive Conservative party, to become...the progressive Conservative Party. Nigel is just a CivNat, who prefers Indian immigrants to Poles. He was the man for the job when the job was UKIP.

[gibsonguy]

Yep.

[MinorityRepublican]

Farage is clueless and England is cooked. You are exactly right, If Nigel really had what it takes he would find a way to ally with Restore. No chance of that happening so l think it is over.

https://www.reformparty.uk/policies#policies-section

https://www.restorebritain.org.uk/objectives

Interesting to compare their platforms.

[citizen]

Restore vs Reform will split the vote. I bet Labour’s fingerprints are somewhere on one or both of them.