In the run-up to this week’s crucial Makerfield byelection, scores of Restore Britain’s placards were planted like mini-forests in the fields off the A49, just south of Wigan.Right across the semirural patchwork of old mining towns that make up this Lancashire constituency, the hard right-wing, anti-immigration party’s posters were ubiquitous – in gardens, atop hedges, and positioned in the front windows of many of the voters who will decide Britain’s most keenly anticipated byelection in decades.Yet few of the posters seen by The Irish Times actually named Restore’s candidate, local businesswoman Rebecca Shepherd (53). It was almost as if was just the party on the ballot, and not the politician representing it.Shepherd, her political rivals claim, has been barely visible on the ground throughout the campaign – apart from stage-managed posts by Restore online. She didn’t even attend last week’s election hustings hosted by the Manchester Evening News. She has done no mainstream media interviews.Yet if Labour’s Andy Burnham succeeds in holding off the challenge of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK to win in Makerfield, thereby opening up his route to oust UK prime minister Keir Starmer from Downing Street, he may have Shepherd to thank for it.Stickers supporting Restore Britain in Wigan, with a poster supporting Labour candidate Andy Burnham in the background. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA Polls suggest she may leech enough right-wing support away from Reform – she could win as much as eight per cent of the poll, according to some surveys – to deny Farage’s candidate, local plumber Rob Kenyon, any chance of a win.Shepherd may be a rarely-seen candidate, the Makerfield byelection’s elusive Scarlet Pimpernel, but her legacy may be to ensure victory for Burnham’s red hordes.The Irish Times tried repeatedly to track down Shepherd over recent days, without success.She didn’t answer her phone or respond to texts. Restore’s press office did not respond to emails. Nobody answered the door at the party’s pop-up campaign headquarters in an old Labour club in Bryn, near the constituency’s main town, Ashton.[ Brexit Britain now: Patrick Freyne revisits Leave voter heartlands 10 years onOpens in new window ]The only one to answer his mobile was Rupert Lowe, the party’s leader, founder and sole MP in the House of Commons – he was originally elected in 2024 as a Reform UK MP, but later fell out with that party’s hierarchy.Now Lowe, a wealthy businessman who was once chairman of Southampton football club, is the biggest thorn in Farage’s side, relentlessly attacking the Reform leader from his populist right flank. Restore has sucked away some of Reform’s support with clever digital campaigning, mostly with posts reflecting right-wing anger over immigration. The party supports the principle of “remigration”, which is seen as hard-right code for the mass deportation of certain foreign residents. Farage used to eschew the idea as too extreme, but the recent electoral threat from Restore has nudged him to embrace it.Does Lowe accept, as Farage’s party now argues, that a vote for Shepherd is essentially a vote for Burnham because it splits right-wing support?“That is a recidivist, negative argument. Who knows how many people will buy that rubbish,” said Lowe. “It’s all part of the script for Reform and the mainstream British media that backs it. It doesn’t really make a difference if Labour or Reform win. Burnham is a failed politician anyway. People want a return to common-sense politics. Only we can provide it.”In recent days, the Mail on Sunday accused people closely associated with Restore of previously attending neo-Nazi rallies. Lowe denies his party promotes racism.“I couldn’t be further from a neo-Nazi. I’m just someone who has lived his life legally, paid his taxes. I’m like lots of other decent British people – I just want my country back.”In Lowe’s Norfolk stronghold of Great Yarmouth, Restore recently won every ward that it contested in last month’s local elections.“If our vote had halved, we still would have won them all,” said Lowe.He confirmed that Restore will contest every constituency at the next UK general election, potentially turning a political headache for Farage into a thunderclap migraine that could thwart his ambitions.Shepherd, meanwhile, appears unlikely to win on Thursday despite surging support for Restore and its radical anti-immigration agenda. By next week she may have returned to running her business, a livery yard and stables just north of the Makerfield constituency.But if she eases Burnham’s way to Downing Street, her impact on British politics may endure for years to come.[ Mark Paul: Suddenly, Great Yarmouth's obesity rates make senseOpens in new window ][ Mark Paul: Burnham faces defining test in Reform strongholdOpens in new window ]