Leader of Restore group quits party

A leader in Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain said he had quit the party as he had found politics "quite unpleasant".

Jon Wedon led Restore's Great Yarmouth First (GYF) group, which won nine county council seats in local elections in Norfolk earlier this year.

He said he had also left his role as constituency office manager for Lowe – the MP for Great Yarmouth - as the demands of the roles "impacted beyond me, reaching my family".

Wedon said he would remain as an independent councillor, while Lowe thanked him for "his work in my office".

GYF enjoyed resounding success in elections for Norfolk County Council earlier this year, with candidates winning every seat they contested.

It is part of Restore Britain, the party set up by Lowe following his bitter departure from Reform UK last year, which alleged he had made physical threats to then-chairman Zia Yusuf.

Lowe firmly denied the allegations and faced no charges.

Ahead of May's local elections, Nigel Farage dismissed the party as "a little local difficulty", but in all nine seats the parties faced each other in, GYF more than doubled Reform's vote.

Wedon also won a by-election for a seat on Great Yarmouth Borough Council.

The election results made GYF councillors influential, as Reform – lacking an overall majority at county hall – relied on them to win key votes, including the selection of council chairman.

GYF also backed the appointment of the council's £ 215,000-a-year chief executive.

But Wedon has now left the party and his role running Lowe's office in Great Yarmouth.

He insisted he was "grateful" to Lowe and "proud" of what GYF had built, but "the demands and pressures of these roles, and politics more generally, have increasingly overspilled into my family life".

"At times, politics has been quite unpleasant and impacted beyond me, reaching my family. That is a line I cannot allow to be crossed again," he said.

He added that he intended to continue in both of his councillor roles as an independent.

In a statement Lowe said he "would like to thank Jon for his work in my office, and locally across our community".

"I wish him and his family well."

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