The ousted Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe could join forces in a breakaway rightwing party with a former deputy leader of the party who was also forced out by Nigel Farage.
The offer came from the former Brexit party MEP Ben Habib, an outspoken critic of Farage, who said he was “constantly in touch” with Lowe.
Lowe was stripped of the party whip by Reform last week after being accused of bullying and making threats against the party chair, Zia Yusuf, claims that he denies. He previously gave an interview criticising Farage’s leadership and the party’s decision-making processes, saying Farage had a “messianic” style.
The party split comes before a major test for Reform UK at the local elections in May and also a byelection in Runcorn and Helsby, which is a chance to show if the party can translate its recent poll lead into further electoral success.
Habib, who ran for Reform in last year’s Wellingborough and Rushden byelection, quit the party last year citing concerns over the way it was run. Speaking to the Telegraph, Habib said he and Lowe were “in politics for the same reason”.
Asked whether he would consider a joint-venture, he told the paper: “Ultimately the reason I joined Reform, and the reason I stood for Reform in Wellingborough, is because the only way you can make a difference is electorally.
“You’ve got to be at the ballot box and hold the electoral system to account … so the answer is yes, I think.”
Habib added: “I see no way back [into Reform] for Rupert, but Rupert is hugely popular. He has the backing of hundreds of thousands of people across the country. The country is crying out for people who are solid.
“Political expediency got the United Kingdom into the mess it’s in. My activity will be to support Rupert.”
Lowe, the Great Yarmouth MP, was citied as a potential replacement for Farage as leader of Reform by the billionaire Elon Musk, who had voiced support for Reform but later posted that Farage “doesn’t have what it takes” – linked to the leader’s refusal to back the case of the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that sources close to Musk said the billionaire owner of Tesla may be persuaded to fund a splinter party on the right with a hardline stance on mass deportations, which Lowe has promoted.
Lowe’s seven-strong team at Westminster and Great Yarmouth on Tuesday put out a statement in their own names backing him, adding that processes designed to protect staff had been “weaponised” in a “malicious fashion”.
“Not just tarnishing Rupert’s name unfairly, but also our office and subsequently us. Nobody from Reform has ever raised these concerns, or any about Rupert, with any of us before this ‘investigation’. If they were so concerned about Rupert’s behaviour why were we not warned?” the statement said.
In a YouTube interview with the rightwing commentator Dan Wootton, Lowe left open the possibility of him joining the Conservatives or Ukip but said he had not taken any decisions about his future.
He suggested he was being forced out of Reform because he posed a threat to Farage, saying that “as in the past, a poppy that stood up too tall has been chopped down”.
“You’ve got to look at the pattern of relationships with Nigel throughout his career … Almost anybody who is in his view either threatening him or is capable enough to take over from him, he tends to fall out with them.”
