The fall-out at Reform between Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe – which came as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has followed Farage’s career and knows what happens to anyone who challenges his dominance – was as swift as it was brutal.
A day after the seagull-hating Great Yarmouth MP gave an interview to the Daily Mail in which he criticised the “messianic” Farage’s hold on the party, he was stripped of its whip over allegations of bullying. Lowe then issued a typically verbose statement claiming that the senior lawyer employed by the party had told him they were “shocked and dismayed” by the lack of evidence against him. That lawyer has since issued their own statement, saying: “I have not expressed either ‘dismay’ or ‘shock’ at any time as to the process. Nor have I said ‘there is zero credible evidence against [Mr Lowe]’, let alone said this ‘repeatedly’.”
What seems beyond doubt is that while one of the claims against Lowe – that he made verbal threats to Reform’s Zia Yusuf – allegedly took place in December, it was only reported to police last Thursday, coincidentally the day of Lowe’s Mail interview. For some reason, the party’s Muslim chair seems to be being blamed by many supporters for the whole farrago, losing 5,000 followers on X in the aftermath of the incident, while Lowe has put on 20,000.
Yusuf certainly acted fast in one regard – immediately after Lowe was stripped of the Reform whip following allegations of bullying, the party website had been stripped of all mentions of the man who had, until then, been of its most prominent media voices.
Meanwhile, those who wonder if things can get even worse for Reform have a swift answer – the clownish ex-GB News pundit Darren Grimes has announced his intention to stand for the party.
