Help

Saving the original email

We need the original file, not a copied or forwarded version. Here is how to get it out of the common email programs.

First, find the right email

It has to be one your organisation sent you directly. Here is what each one looks like, and what to search for.

Restore Britain

Sent once, when you first joined. It is the only one like it, so it may be a long way down your inbox.

Paste this into your email search box

from:[email protected]

Nothing found? Check spam, and in Gmail the Promotions and Updates tabs.

Example — not a real email

From: Restore Britain<[email protected]>
Subject: Welcome to Restore Britain
Date: the day you joined

Dear [your name],

Thank you for joining Restore Britain. You’re now a member of a party that believes our country can and must be radically restored — from the bottom up.

Your country. Your responsibility. Let’s restore it — together.

Rupert Lowe — Leader, Restore Britain

SummaryDate · Payment · the amount you paid

Your informationYour name, email, phone and billing address

Please retain this receipt for your records as confirmation of your payment.

Reform UK

Sent whenever you ask to sign in to the member portal. Reform does not send a welcome email, so this is the one to use.

Paste this into your email search box

from:[email protected]

Nothing found? Check spam, and in Gmail the Promotions and Updates tabs.

It has to be a recent one — issued in the last 24 hours. An old sign-in email proves your account existed then, not that it exists now. If yours is older, request a fresh login link from Reform first, then download that one.

Example — not a real email

From: ReformUK<[email protected]>
Subject: Your Member Portal Login Link
Date: today

Hello [your name],

Click the button below to securely access your Reform UK Member Portal:

Access Member Portal

Alternative: if the button above doesn’t work, you can manually enter this 4-digit code on the login page:

Code0000

This login link and code will expire in 15 minutes for security reasons.

Reform UK Team

Those are illustrations, drawn from real messages with every personal detail removed. Yours will carry your own name and details. We never ask you to click a link inside them — only to save the file.

Then save the original

Every email carries a hidden seal from the organisation that sent it. That seal is what proves your membership — but it only survives in the original file. Copying the text, taking a screenshot or forwarding the message all destroy it, which is why we ask you to download instead.

The file you want ends in .eml. It is small, and it is the whole message including the parts you normally never see.

Gmail — on a computer

This is the one most people need, and it takes about twenty seconds.

Open the email from your organisation
Click the ⋮ menu at the top right of the message itself — not the one in the toolbar above it
Choose Show original. A new tab opens
Click Download Original
Upload the file it saves

Apple Mail — on a Mac

Find the email in your list
Drag it out onto your desktop
That creates a .eml file ready to upload

Thunderbird

Right-click the message in the list
Choose Save As
Save it as an .eml file

Outlook, Proton Mail, Yahoo and others

The wording differs but the idea is the same. Look for an option calledShow original, View source,Export, Download or Save as, usually behind a ⋯ or More menu on the message itself.

Two things worth knowing. Outlook's desktop program tends to save messages as .msg, which we cannot read — if that is all you can get, open the same mailbox in a web browser instead, where a download option is usually available. And copying the raw text into a document does not work: it has to be the saved file.

On a phone

Phone email apps do not currently let you save the original message, so you will need a computer for this step. It is the one part we cannot make easier yet. We are working with organisations on verifying directly, which would remove the step altogether.

Still stuck?

Tell us which email program you use and we will walk you through it. It also tells us which ones need better instructions here.

Go to your account and upload