Reform UK row: Leaked messages reveal Farage fury with Lowe
Buy Now An error occurred. Buy Now An error occurred. Book Novotel Hotel Reform UK row: Leaked messages reveal Farage fury with Lowe Banzai Japan Music Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPElmgQJGBo Nigel Farage called the behaviour of suspended Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe “disgusting” and “contemptible” in private WhatsApp messages seen by the BBC. In the messages, which were sent after Lowe criticised the Reform leader in a Daily Mail interview, Farage accused him of “damaging the party just before elections”. Reform has always denied there was any connection between Lowe’s suspension and his criticism of the party. In his Mail interview on 5 March, Lowe called Reform a “protest party” led by “the Messiah”. He was suspended on 7 March and reported to police over claims he had made threats of violence against party chairman Zia Yusuf. Reform said it had also received allegations of bullying in Lowe’s MP offices. Lowe strongly denies all the allegations. Book Novotel Hotel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJsGZL-zb54 He has since accused Farage, external of a “malicious witch hunt” and being motivated “to remove me because I dared to ask questions”. Responding to the latest development, external on social media, Lowe said: “These messages unquestionably prove that the Reform leadership has zero integrity. “Nigel Farage must never become prime minister.” Farage told the BBC: “The suspension was to protect the party, simple. The newspaper attack on Reform UK is separate but dreadful.” He has previously insisted the party was duty bound to look into any allegations of wrongdoing. Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice previously told the BBC there was “absolutely no truth” in claims of a link between the decision to suspend Lowe and the allegations being made public. But a series of messages between Farage and someone who has worked for Lowe in recent years reveals Farage’s personal anger with Lowe about his comments to the Daily Mail. Banzai Japan Music Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3syHHGzkF_s In one message, Farage says Lowe is “contemptible”. When asked by the activist, who is not currently a party member, why Reform had not allowed a lawyer to complete an investigation before suspending him Farage said: “Because he is damaging the party just before elections. Disgusting.” When it was suggested the investigation into Lowe was a response to his criticism of the leadership, Farage replied on WhatsApp: “We are definitely damaged and within two weeks of nominations. Awful.” Farage went on to say the Mail interview was a “side issue” and that the party had to investigate the claims against Lowe. But the messages reveal a level of animosity between the suspended MP and his team and the Reform UK leadership, alongside the claims about his behaviour, which Lowe vehemently denies. The BBC’s source is themselves the subject of an allegation of bullying, which they strenuously deny. The BBC has spoken to several members of Rupert Lowe’s team. Among them are people who have worked alongside Nigel Farage for years and admired him. But many now are deeply critical. One said: “Nigel is thin skinned and egotistical. I have spent years defending him but the aura has gone for me now. Reporting Rupert to the police? Come on. They’re trying to put him in prison!” The staff member went on to claim that the root of this whole row was Elon Musk’s praise for Lowe on X, saying: “Nigel is very sensitive about his American contacts.” Another staffer said: “It is absolutely terrible the party going to the police. “You’d never find someone more kind and considerate than Rupert. “If you don’t have policies as a party, you’re a joke and that is what Rupert was pointing out.” The BBC has also seen evidence of lengthy and detailed exchanges between Lowe’s offices and Parliament’s human resources team over the alleged conduct and subsequent departures of two members of staff. Lowe has long insisted that he and his staff diligently followed the due process parliament requires of them and there was no need for the party, or a senior lawyer hired by the party, to get involved. Reform UK has expanded rapidly, now boasting more than 200,000 members and regularly topping or coming second in national opinion polls. But Nigel Farage has publicly acknowledged that infighting has damaged the party’s chances of progress. Rupert Lowe told the BBC: “Farage has admitted himself, in writing, that the motivation behind my removal was the Daily Mail interview, in which I raised reasonable and constructive questions of Reform structure, policy and communication – following months of pushing for change behind the scenes. “That interview is why they designed and launched their horrific smear campaign against my name. It is evil behaviour. Nigel Farage must never be Prime Minister. All I have done is tell the truth, and I will continue to do so.” In the WhatsApp exchanges, Farage is asked whether the row could have been better handled. He says that given the allegations of bullying “in the current world we have to take this seriously and to be seen to take this seriously”. Book Novotel Hotel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR8YYeb4PMk Banzai Japan Social Media Fumi Fujisaki Idol Riko Ueno Idol Rino Ibusuki Idol Yunagi Nino Idol Shiori Fujisaki Idol Kana Ichinose Idol Hoshino Arice Idol Sasa Sasagawa Idol Kosaka Yuu Idol Tsukumo Aira Idol Maika Ando Idol Yuuki Mochimaru Idol
‘Farage and Lowe need their heads banged together’
Buy Now An error occurred. Buy Now An error occurred. ‘Farage and Lowe need their heads banged together’ Banzai Japan Music Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPElmgQJGBo A public spat involving the leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage and one of the party’s other high-profile MPs has caught the attention of political figures as much as constituents. Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe, now an Independent, was suspended by the party over an allegation of “verbal threats” – a claim which he has denied. Farage, MP for Clacton, said the row had “dented” Reform’s “unity” but wrote in The Telegraph, external that it would have been “inconceivable” not to take action. The ordeal has since prompted the launch of a police investigation, but what do voters in each of their respective constituencies make of what has happened? Reform UK won five out of 650 constituencies in the July 2024 general election, but with Lowe’s suspension they now have four MPs in the House of Commons. Mention of Lowe’s election win has been removed from Reform UK’s homepage, external list of the other four wins. In Lowe’s constituency on the Norfolk coast, retired police officer John Dupen, who voted for Reform, said he felt the row and in-fighting had “taken the impetus” out of the party. “They were becoming a credible force, but I think Farage has done the right thing to remove him from the party, but mud sticks doesn’t it?” he suggested. “Farage is a man of conviction and if he says something, he normally does it. “They could have done without it, but I think they will get around it and time will heal it.” Book Novotel Hotel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJsGZL-zb54 Lowe is accused of workplace bullying, and also of making threats of physical violence against the party’s chairman Zia Yusuf. The MP has said there was “zero credible evidence” against him, and claimed he was suspended in response to him previously criticising Farage in an interview. The 67-year-old former chairman of Southampton FC also said he would be “seeking legal advice”. Great Yarmouth resident, Carmel Westgate, 67, said she believed Lowe was “a good man” who “stands by his words” and had tried to help the town. “I personally don’t think this should have been public and Nigel Farage should have come and met with Rupert and spoke with him behind closed doors,” she said. “You’re innocent until proven guilty, but people will believe what they want to believe. “Why has it all of a sudden come out now? Is it jealousy? Is it because he has spoken his mind? Is it because he is loved by a lot of people?” Gloria Reynolds, 78, agrees that “the job he was doing was fairly good” and said, “as a Christian”, she would continue “praying for him”. “There is a lot of witch-hunting going on amongst the parties nowadays, but as long as he carries on doing a good job I can’t see it makes any difference,” she said. “Nigel is Nigel and he is very full of himself I feel, but until we know the whole situation it is difficult to say.” Banzai Japan Music Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3syHHGzkF_s Retired midwife, Francis Baxter, 70, did not vote for Lowe because of his association with Farage, but said since being voted in he had been “positive” for the coastal constituency, which also includes Hopton, Gorleston, Caister and Winterton. She added: “I do think he is getting things moving and shaking up the area and I have quite admired what he has done. “I feel quite strongly actually that he is being set up and that is quite a fashionable thing to do now. “He might have done it, I don’t know, but I feel there is more to it than meets the eye. Reform had been riding high in recent polls, but some now believe the spat could see its popularity decrease. Christopher Lambert, 84, believes Farage has made the right decision in suspending Lowe. “I think Nigel Farage’s party has done exceptionally well until now, [but] when you get in-fighting in a party it does the party no good at all,” he said. “I am on the fence about Reform and I should think I will stay on the fence. I have seen many, many general elections, but where you get in-fighting it just kills it. “I think the Conservatives and maybe Labour are rubbing their hands. “I liked Nigel Farage and I still like him. He speaks as he feels it is, and I think he is good.” Further down the coast… Heading south along the east coast, we arrive the Essex constituency of Clacton, which also includes the towns of Frinton-on-Sea, Walton-on-the-Naze and the village of Jaywick. Farage voter and Clacton resident, Dorothy King, 82, said: “It is probably a storm in a teacup to a certain extent and I cannot see what they are going to achieve by pushing each other about. “I don’t know where it will go and if they will keep their little argument going or if it will just peter out.” Jan Green, who lives in Kirby Cross next to Frinton, did not vote for Farage. “I think they are behaving like children and are acting rather silly and I do not agree with it,” she told the BBC. “Both of them are very strong-willed people and I don’t think either of them will back down. “Farage is our MP here, although we don’t see him.” Joan James, who lives in Walton-on-the-Naze, said Farage and Lowe needed “their heads banged together”. “They need to get on with it,” she added. Frinton resident Lorraine O’Louthlin, who voted for Labour last year, said Farage was “definitely” right to suspend Lowe. “I think he has done good because some parties do not act on these things, but if someone has done wrong in the party then get rid of them,” she said. Frinton resident Lorraine Rodwell, meanwhile, described the spat as “boring”. “I can’t say I have read about it because it