'All I did was stand up to Farage': Suspended Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe breaks silence as police launch probe
11 March 2025, 13:33 | Updated: 11 March 2025, 13:46
Suspended Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe has spoken out for the first time after police launched an investigation into his behaviour.
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Mr Lowe, who was suspended from the party last week for alleged "verbal threats" against the party chairman Zia Yusuf, used his statement on Tuesday to criticise the Reform leadership.
The Great Yarmouth MP strenuously denies the claims against him and has suggested that they are politically motivated, after he criticised party leader Nigel Farage in an interview last week.
Mr Lowe, 67, said on Tuesday: "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.
Read more: Met Police launches investigation into suspended Reform MP Rupert Lowe
"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.
"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.
"I have certainly learnt one valuable lesson over the last few days:
"Loyalty in Reform lasts only until it’s no longer useful."
Tom Swarbrick debates Reform's Richard Tice
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".
Mr Lowe has strenuously denied the claims, saying the allegations of bullying do not relate to him and were made by staff who themselves faced disciplinary action.
It comes after internal splits within the right-wing party - which had five MPs elected at the last election - opened up on Thursday as Mr Lowe told the Daily Mail that Reform remains a "protest party led by the Messiah" under Mr Farage.
Asked whether he thought the former Ukip leader had the potential to become prime minister, as his supporters have suggested, the MP said: "It's too early to know whether Nigel will deliver the goods. He can only deliver if he surrounds himself with the right people."
