Rupert Lowe, the leader of the anti-Reform, establishment-linked ‘Restore Britain’ political party drew 1.7 billion views on X in the first 10 months of the year, more than every other British politician and all but three world leaders. Some 43 percent of those views, however – almost half — came from posts X owner Elon Musk reposted or commented on. Jock McMillan, founder of Knox Digital and a former adviser to Rishi Sunak, said: “Rupert Lowe is only relevant in British politics today because of Elon Musk.”
The figures, published Sunday in the Financial Times from Knox Digital data covering January through October, put only Narendra Modi, with 12.09 billion views, Donald Trump, with 1.87 billion and Sanae Takaichi, with 1.74 billion ahead of Lowe’s 1.72 billion. He even artificially outranked Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with 910 million views, Emmanuel Macron, with 900 million and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
Restore Britain was set up by Lowe after he was thrown out of Farage’s Reform UK for actively campaigning against the party leadership just months after a Tory peer’s brother donated £20,000 to him. The party is run day-to-day by former European Parliamentary staffer Alistair Harrison and his Ukrainian wife, who also works in Lowe’s parliamentary office.
Posts by Lowe that Musk quote-tweeted had almost 100 times as many views as those the X owner did not interact with, delivering the Restore Britain leader an artificial, foreign-backed boost.
McMillan alleges the boost is more valuable than a multimillion-pound donation.
“Musk has pushed Lowe online 121 times since July 2025, generating more X views than Macron, Meloni and Zelenskyy,” he said. “Although foreign actors have supported political parties and individuals in the past, this is undoubtedly the most aggressive example of this kind of partisan promotion in the digital age.”
That is foreign astroturfing: a foreign platform owner manufacturing political relevance.
Lowe told the Financial Times, in response: “Elon Musk has enabled free speech, which under our constitution should be a given here in Britain but, along with court trials, is under threat.” He has declared more than £113,000 in earnings from X since the 2024 election.
