Nigel Farage has warned there is “no way back” into Reform UK for Rupert Lowe as the civil war dominating the party deepens.
The Reform leader said the suspended MP is “out to cause maximum damage” to the party and claimed he is now chasing the backing of Elon Musk instead.
It follows days of bitter back and forth between Mr Farage and Mr Lowe, who was suspended last Friday over allegations he made “verbal threats” against Reform chair Zia Yusuf.
Mr Lowe has claimed he is the victim of a political assassination by Mr Farage for daring to question the Reform leader’s “messianic” tendencies. He was suspended just 24 hours later.
But Mr Farage has insisted Mr Lowe’s behaviour and the allegations against him meant Mr Lowe had to be suspended.
Reform deputy leader Richard Tice also told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg Reform has a “duty of care” and suspending Mr Lowe was the “right and proper” decision.
Mr Lowe has claimed Mr Farage and Reform had “silenced” him over the issue of Pakistani grooming 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,” Mr Lowe claimed.
And, in a major escalation of the row, Mr Farage told The Daily 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.
“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, he’s now out to pretend that he’s the only person who wants to deal with the Pakistani rape gangs.”
And, days after reports billionaire Trump ally Mr Musk could back a rival party with Mr Lowe’s involvement, Mr Farage said: “This is all an attempt not just to damage Reform, but to get Elon Musk thinking that he’s the good guy.”
Mr Musk was hyperactive on social media calling for a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal, even saying Mr Farage should be replaced as Reform leader for not having “what it takes”. The Tesla tycoon then endorsed Mr Lowe as his successor, a move which appears to have sparked conflict between the pair ahead of his dismissal.
In a direct response above a screengrab of The Daily Telegraph story, Mr Lowe said: “Reform should not belong to Farage, it should belong to the members. Let them decide if I am welcome in the party. Hold a vote to see if they approve of this malicious witch hunt launched by Reform’s leadership. Farage claims Reform is a democratic party. I say prove it.”
He added Mr Farage’s latest claims were “desperate”. “I said that Reform leadership was slitting its own throat by launching this horrific smear campaign against me, with zero credible evidence,” he said.
And he said: “I raised questions of Reform policy, communication and structure. The day after, you kicked me out.”
The Independent has reached out to Mr Lowe and Mr Farage for further comment.
The infighting between Mr Lowe and Mr Farage comes after polling suggested that the party may have hit a ceiling, with a surge in support since the general election coming to an end three weeks ago.
The latest weekly Techne UK poll for The Independent puts Reform on 25 per cent for the third week in a row, and has Labour pulling ahead by three points on 28 per cent after praise for Sir Keir Starmer following a week of diplomatic talks over the Ukraine crisis.
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