Nigel Farage warns 'no way back' for Rupert Lowe in Reform UK amid bullying investigation

12 March 2025, 12:24

Nigel Farage has said there is 'no way back' into Reform UK for Rupert Lowe after accusations made about the rape gang scandal claiming he was 'silenced' by the party.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has accused Rupert Lowe of wanting to "cause maximum destruction and damage" after his party exit.

Lowe took to X to explosively accuse Farage of trying to "silence me on the Pakistani rape gangs" - referencing the ongoing investigation into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

This comes as Reform UK suspended Rupert Lowe and referred him to police after complaints of bullying by two female members of staff and allegations of violent threats against party members.

Farage told The Telegraph: "Basically, what is happening here is Rupert Lowe knows there’s no way back. And he said to Lee Anderson, our whip and MP: ‘I will slit the throat of the Reform Party.’ He’s out to cause maximum destruction and damage."

In a post on X on Tuesday, Lowe wrote: "There have been repeated attempts from within Reform, including senior leadership, to silence me on the Pakistani rape gangs.

"At a speech in Essex, I was instructed by Farage’s team, sanctioned by him, to remove a call to deport all complicit foreign national family members. I ignored them.

"My repeated pleadings for Reform to follow up on its promise to deliver a national inquiry into the rape gangs were ignored. There was a belief from senior Reform figures that my language on the rape gangs was too strong, too robust, too tough."

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Former MP for Great Yarmouth, Lowe has been accused of bullying, using offensive language and also "threats of physical violence" against Reform UK Chairman Zia Yusuf.

The Reform MP clashed with Nigel Farage days before his dismissal, as the pair battled for control of the party.

The allegations of bullying came from two separate women, one who worked in his Parliamentary office, the other in his constituency.

Lowe denied all allegations against him.

The former MP has not cooperated with the investigation into his behaviour, a Reform UK statement claimed.

The Met said on Tuesday that it had launched an investigation, without explicitly naming Lowe.

The force said: "The Metropolitan Police have now launched an investigation into an allegation of a series of verbal threats made by a 67-year-old man."

They said it is claimed that the alleged threats were made between December 2024 and February 2025, and that inquiries are ongoing.

In a statement on Friday, Reform said Mr Lowe had been reported to the police over alleged "threats of physical violence" to party chairman Zia Yusuf.

It also claimed that two women working in the MP's offices had made complaints about "workplace bullying" and "derogatory remarks".

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Farage told the newspaper: "Not content with now being under investigation by the Metropolitan Police, not content with the fact that the independent KC has already publicly rebuked him for not respecting due process and for openly lying about his conversation with the KC, Lowe is now out to pretend that he’s the only person who wants to deal with the Pakistani rape gangs.

"My record on this goes back to 2013. I in fact did an exclusive with The Telegraph at the time in 2014 about a couple in Rotherham who had been taken off the foster list for being UKIP members at the same time as all these things were going on."

Nigel Farage takes questions from LBC callers

Lowe's rebuttal included calls for Reform UK to vote on if he is "welcome in the party"

"Hold a vote to see if they approve of this malicious witch hunt launched by Reform’s leadership," he said.

“Farage claims Reform is a democratic party. I say prove it.”

On Tuesday, Lowe suggested the claims against him are politically motivated.

He said in a statement: "Maybe I am an 'amateur' at politics. Having seen how it works from the inside, I now wear that as a badge of immense pride. I did not know that these people had it in them. I honestly did not think it was possible to stoop to these wicked levels. I thought football was a dirty game. Politics is something else entirely.

"Normally in life, the bullets come from the enemy.

"I fought alongside these people for years. Campaigned with them, celebrated with them, laughed with them. Yes, there were issues, as there are in any family. But I genuinely believed that we were a team.

"How wrong I was. When I was informed that senior Reform figures have been briefing journalists that I have dementia, I was shocked. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been. Weaponising something so hideous to smear me is the most appalling thing I have ever seen in politics.

Tom Swarbrick debates Reform's Richard Tice

"I came into this for one reason - to change the way our country is governed. That is it.

"I don’t care about money or fame. I’ve done that. I am not interested. I donate my entire net MP salary to local charities. It is not about any of that.

"I want to change Britain. And I mean radical change. That remains my sole aim.

What did I do wrong? The unforgivable act of standing up to Farage."

In January, two Labour MPs from towns at the centre of the grooming gang scandal have backed calls for a national inquiry into the child exploitation rings to hold authorities accountable for their "failings".

Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham, announced that “nothing less than a national inquiry into the failings of those in authority to prevent and be accountable for their failings” would restore public trust in public bodies.

In March, two men were found guilty of multiple sexual offences after a court heard how two teenagers they referred to as 'fresh meat' were regularly raped over months in Rotherham.

Prosecutors said the girls were "powerless to prevent the actions of older and more mature individuals determined to exploit them for sexual purposes".

Sheffield Crown Court was told during a five-week trial how the girls were sexually assaulted several times a week over a period of six months in the South Yorkshire town.

The convictions are the latest following the National Crime Agency's investigation into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, which is called Operation Stovewood.

On Monday, Romulad Stefan Houphouet, who is now 37, and Absolom Sigiyo, now 41, were found guilty of a number of offences including rape.

A third defendant, Jacek Brzozowski, now 35, was cleared of the one charge he was facing in the trial, of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, but he admitted a charge of penetrative sexual activity with a child earlier this year.