There’s a crossroads where Yarmouth Road meets Tan Lane, at which England stands. Driving in from Great Yarmouth, a series of dark blue signs line the grass verge by the Tesco Superstore, promoting new political party, ‘Great Yarmouth First’. On one side of the road is the Gate public house, as decked with England flags as the home end at Wembley. On the other is Caister Barbers, where Bahez Abas and Sirwan Slhian are hard at work with their clippers, executing perfect fades. From the pavement, the Iranian-owned barbers appears surrounded. But inside, 29-year-old Bahez is smiling. “Take a look at our gowns,” he says. “We’ve had them for years, long before the flags.” Bahez’ clients are robed in Union Jack hairdressing gowns. “Why not?” he shrugs. “Yes, I am born in Kurdish Iran. But I am British now. I love England. I love Britain.”
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Bahez pulls out his mobile phone. “This is ‘Flag Man’,” he says, showing us the Instagram account of ‘Flagman UK’, a figure who conceals his identity but is believed to come from nearby Lowestoft. Flagman has claimed the Caister flags on Facebook. “Flagman puts the flags up, and then a few days or weeks later, another man in a balaclava – also English – takes them all down. Flag Man puts them up again, they come down again. This has all happened three or four times. Sometimes Union Jacks, sometimes England flags. “When the man came to take them down the first time, I said to him ‘you’re English, this is your flag. You’re crazy!’”
The first time Flag Man came to Caister, Bahez says he offered him a Union Jack to put in his window. “I said, yes of course, I have no problem,” he says. “I put it in my window. But then other guy in the balaclava, the one who takes the flags down, came to me and said, ‘if you don’t take that flag down, I’ll put your window in’. “I don’t want any trouble.”
As the local elections approach this Thursday, Great Yarmouth – better known for its award-winning pier and wide, yellow bucket-and-spade beach – finds itself on the frontlines of Britain’s search for identity. One of Britain’s most easterly towns, Yarmouth rarely finds itself at the centre of things, but in this election, it is at the heart of a niche right-wing power struggle – between Nigel Farage’s Reform Party and Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain. In this battle for the heart of the Far Right – and the largesse of funders like Elon Musk – the two multi-millionaire former bankers both want desperately to win.
Tempers frayed after Musk anointed Lowe as a future leader of the Reform party. Then Lowe was kicked out of Reform a year ago following allegations of threats of violence towards party chairman Zia Yusuf, although the Crown Prosecution Service dropped an investigation due to insufficient evidence.
Now Lowe has created a new party in time for the elections – ‘Great Yarmouth First’ –which is affiliated to Restore Britain nationally, although posters we saw did not reflect this. Lowe has said ‘GYF’ will act as a “pilot project”. Walking along the town’s ‘Golden Mile’ sands in last week’s spring heatwave, it was clear that despite struggling with coastal deprivation, Great Yarmouth is far from ‘left behind’.
Millions in regeneration money have built a new leisure centre, and the iconic Palmers building has had a £17m refurb. A further £18m is pledged for transforming the famous Winter Gardens, while there are plans for a multi-screen cinema, hotel and shops on North Quay, a £10m investment in a new port terminal – and even the beloved Iron Duke pub is due to reopen later this year after a £2m restoration.
To crown it all, a fortnight ago, after a £2m refurbishment, the town’s Britannia Pier was given the honour of being named national ‘Pier of the Year’. The Pier is also where banker-turned-Cotswolds-farmer Rupert Lowe chose to launch ‘Great Yarmouth First’ in February, in a theatre advertising Gareth Gates and Jason Manford. On a pier flanked by a Thai takeaway and Turkish restaurant, Lowe launched his far-right revolution. “Millions will have to go,” the MP said as he pledged a policy of mass deportations to rapturous applause and foot stamping.
Lowe’s party makes Nigel Farage look like Zac Polanski. The anti-Far Right organisation, HOPE not Hate this week published a special report that claimed a “litany of extremists resurfacing in Restore Britain, including figures who have spent decades immersed in fascist groups such as the BNP, Blood & Honour and much else.”
Yet in Yarmouth last week, many people told us how impressed they have been by their leaflets on local issues – doctor’s surgeries, traffic calming measures and, inevitably, potholes. Eating 99 Flakes in the sunshine, were Maggie and Steve (who asked not to give their surname). Steve, 66, a retired submariner, said they were still deciding who to vote for in the local elections. “We’re both very interested in this new party, Great Yarmouth First,” he said. “We’ve seen a few posters and signs around today, and we’ve said when we get home, we’ll look them up, see what they’re all about. We like the sound of them.”
By the donkey rides hut, with its sign “please do not be offended if we ask to weigh your child”, another couple were less welcoming. “I’ll vote Reform or Great Yarmouth First, haven’t decided,” the man said. “Now get back to your city.” As the Pier blasted out ear-splitting EuroHouse to pensioners in the April sunshine, a woman strolling by told us her husband had been radicalised by Facebook. “He’s always on his screen,” she says. “He’s even started going on Tommy Robinson marches. We’ve just had to stop talking about politics in our house. It’s banned at the dinner table.”
Dr Joe Mulhall, an expert on the Far Right who works for HOPE not Hate claims some Great Yarmouth First voters may think they are only voting for a local party. “Restore Britain may stand for election on local issues like doctors’ surgeries and potholes, but Great Yarmouth First is part of the most extreme political party to gain traction since the BNP,” Dr Mulhall claims. “Despite the image they are presenting to voters, local people should be aware of the true extremism at the core of the party.”
Restore Britain were contacted for comment.
In our straw poll, two young people walking their dogs along the seafront were the lone voices for the Conservatives. Lucy Hammond, 59, said that, for her, next week’s vote will be between Green and Labour. “I can tell you who I won’t be voting for,” she said. “Nigel Farage.”
“Reform have got so many ex-Tories they are just Conservatives 2.0,” said Charlie Bircham, 55, who works at the longstanding fishing shop, Pownalls. “I’m happy to support Rupert Lowe,” he said. “He’s the only politician who does what it says on the tin.” In a warning for Yarmouth voters that things are not always what they seem, last summer, Lowe spotted a small boat coming into Great Yarmouth. “Dinghies coming into Great Yarmouth, RIGHT NOW,” he posted on his X account. “Authorities alerted!”
The vessel was actually a rowing boat manned by a team of four – including a former Royal Marine – on a charity row to raise funds for research into motor neurone disease. Along a coast waving with flags, Caister even has its own – Caister Men Never Turn Back, which remembers the lifeboat disaster during the Great Storm of 1901. As Britain votes this week, the extreme east of England finds itself all at sea.