With the formal launch of the Restore Britain party in February 2026, led by Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe, a day-one pledge to scrap the controversial IR35 tax rules has freelancers talking.
This article provides an analysis of the Restore Britain platform and the legislative reality of scrapping v. replacing tax law.
What are Restore Britain’s policies?
Launched on 13 February 2026, Restore Britain is the latest evolution of Rupert Lowe’s political career following his high-profile split from Reform UK. Positioning itself as a more hardline alternative to Nigel Farage’s party, Restore Britain is partnering with local groups like Great Yarmouth First and gaining support from organisations including Advance UK and Britain First.
The party’s core mission centres on a programme of “national restoration” which will have a bag of mixed feelings from Freelance Informer readers. Some may find his stances on eliminating IR35 and inheritance tax positive, but also question the more hardline commentary Lowe has published online.
Here is a sampling of Restore Britain’s policies:
- Strict immigration control: A net-zero approach to migration and mass deportations. As stated on the official Restore Britain platform, the party promises to “reverse” mass migration, detaining and removing illegal entrants within 24 hours.
- Deregulation: Slashing red tape that Lowe argues has stifled British innovation. He has pledged to “burn down the regulatory frameworks that crush small businesses” and end what he describes as a paralysing HR culture.
- Abolishing IR35: A headline promise to remove the Intermediaries Legislation entirely to unleash the 4.3 million self-employed people in the UK.
IR35 treats independent contractors like employees for tax purposes – without giving them any of the rights. It is daylight robbery.
Freelancers, startups, and small businesses thrive on flexibility – IR35 strangles that with bureaucracy and confusion, holding back innovation and job creation.
IR35 is not about fairness. It is all about squeezing more money out of honest contractors. The result? Less work, more red tape, and widespread confusion.
–Rupert Lowe, MP Great Yarmouth and Head of Restore Britian Party
In the simplest terms, we could look to “solve” IR35’s negative impacts on the UK workforce in two ways:
The clean slate approach
The quickest legislative route to freeing freelancers is a repeal of Chapters 8 and 10 of ITEPA 2003.
- Chapter 8 is the original IR35 (2000)
- Chapter 10 is the Off-Payroll Working reform (2017/2021)
By simply removing these chapters from the statute books, the legal burden of “proving” employment status vanishes. The relationship reverts to a standard commercial contract between two businesses. This would immediately end the practice of “blanket inside-IR35” determinations by risk-averse corporations.
The alternative: The bright-line test
If a full scrap is deemed too radical for the Treasury, the next quickest solution is a Statutory Definition of Self-Employment. This would replace the subjective “Master-Servant” case law with objective criteria. Critics argue it doesn’t fit the 2026 digital economy, where highly skilled experts, such as IT consultants or engineers, naturally work with autonomy but might still be “controlled” by a project’s scope. Therefore, under a bright-line approach if a limited company meets 3 out of 5 criteria (e.g., has its own insurance, multiple clients, and provides its own equipment), it is automatically exempt from all IR35-related scrutiny.
“Scrapping” IR35: Is it the best legislative solution?
In political terms, “scrapping” is often dismissed as a slogan. However, there is a technical argument for why a total repeal rather than a complex rewrite is the fastest way to restore the freelance economy.
While the political appeal of a “day-one scrap” is high, an IR35 contractor industry expert warns of the “chaos” that could follow an unplanned repeal.
Commenting on the Restore Britain IR35 proposals, Dave Chaplin, CEO of IR35 tax compliance firm IR35 Shield, said:
In principle, yes, IR35 needs to go. I’ve said that consistently for over 20 years. So, when Rupert Lowe and the newly formed Restore Britain party say they would scrap IR35 on day one, and Reform UK says the same, I understand the political appeal. But ‘scrap’ is not a serious policy—it’s a headline.
Chaplin suggests that what actually needs to happen is a full rewrite of Chapters 7 to 11 of ITEPA 2003.
“That requires detailed consultation, proper drafting and industry input. It cannot be done overnight,” Chaplin told The Freelance Informer.
Here, the IR35 expert explained why:
If you simply delete Chapter 8 and Chapter 10, which is what ‘scrapping IR35’ would mean in practice, you effectively reopen the door to large-scale tax avoidance through limited company structures. Chapter 9 was meant to deal with that, but it’s already proven extremely difficult to enforce. We’ve seen the mess that followed the 2017 and 2021 off-payroll reforms. Repealing everything without a replacement framework just creates a different kind of chaos.
Chaplin said, the Conservatives know the off-payroll reforms were “badly handled” and they nearly scrapped them before deciding to keep them—and they’re still searching for a workable position.
“The truth is, none of the parties currently has a properly developed solution,” he said.
He continued, “We don’t need ‘scrap’. We need ‘replace’. And replacement means careful legislative redesign, not day-one theatrics. There are potentially simpler fixes and sensible tweaks available right now—but serious reform requires more than a slogan.
-Dave Chaplin, IR35 Shield
Where do we go from here on the IR35 debate?
Many freelancers, regardless of where they stand on most of the Restore Britain party’s policies, will probably agree that Lowe has correctly identified the “cancerous” effect of IR35 on the flexible workforce. However, the challenge lies in the Treasury’s reliance on the estimated £1.2+ billion in annual revenue these rules generate.
For an IR35 “scrap” to work, it is looking like it must be accompanied by a broader reform of the UK tax system—one that finally recognises that being a “one-person business” involves risks that a regular employee never faces.
Beyond acknowledging these challenges, the government and HMRC must support broader economic growth by granting freelancers the freedom to serve multiple clients under a fair tax code, rather than funnelling them into restrictive PAYE and umbrella company schemes.
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Someone running an IR35 compliance firm will OF COURSE say it shouldn’t be scrapped! Are people really so dense that they don’t understand that obvious reality? Why do the editors of this site even bother to ask him, or quote him?
The so-called IR35 “experts” are in reality simply VESTED INTERESTS. They go out of business if it’s scrapped.
If you want real expertise, many contractors have it. The darned thiong should be scrapped WITHOUT FURTHER CONSULTATION. None is needed – everything that can be said about IR35 and what should be done about it has already been said – in spades – over 2 decades.
Lowe/Restore is not a serious proposition as it is backed or even driven by the Tory MP Gavin Williamson.
They are just a spoiling operation to trick people away from voting for the Reform Party.