Just as Reform UK was picking up the kind of momentum it needs to win some seats in the English county council elections, stepping closer to its declared objective to be the “real opposition”, its leaders have gone to war with one another.
The dispute between Nigel Farage, leader and former owner of the party, and his outspoken ex-colleague Rupert Lowe, MP for Great Yarmouth, is growing increasingly bitter and is being played out in the public domain.
Farage says: “I don’t need this”, which is undeniable, but the bigger question is how much damage it will do…
So what is Reform’s Farage-Lowe dispute about?
Arguments are running on twin tracks. One concerns the principal personalities; the other, albeit intertwined, is a split about the policies and purpose of their party.
On the personal allegations and counter-claims, the police have confirmed that they are investigating allegations against Lowe of threatening words and behaviour, levelled by the party chair, Zia Yusuf, the alleged victim. Farage says Lowe “told Lee Anderson [MP and chief whip] he [Lowe] would slit the throat of the Reform party”. Lowe responds, on social media: “Desperate. I said that Reform leadership was slitting its own throat by launching this horrific smear campaign against me, with zero credible evidence. I raised questions of Reform policy, communication and structure. The day after, you kicked me out. That’s your real motive.”
Lowe is referring, among other things, to the party’s stance on the rape gangs issue and Farage’s supposed failure to institute a promised independent inquiry by Reform UK. Farage says that’s “monstrous”, adding: “I have fought against the rape gangs for over a decade.”
Members of Lowe’s office reject criticisms of him; the lawyer appointed by Reform to investigate matters has denied Lowe’s account of his conversations with her. Lowe says Farage swans around and doesn’t do much in the Commons or his Clacton constituency. Farage says Lowe hasn’t behaved properly and cites alleged bullying in Lowe’s office. Lowe now says he’ll sue Reform people for defamation. There has been much trouble since Elon Musk started approving Lowe’s X/Twitter posts and suggested Reform needed a new leader.
Is there any policy substance to this?
Yes. Lowe’s original complaint was that Reform UK is a mere “protest party led by the messiah”, rather than putting forward a serious programme for government. More recently, Lowe has elaborated on this, and rejected Farage’s attempts to widen Reform’s appeal to more mainstream voters. Thus, as far as can be seen, Lowe wants a more radical approach and one that focuses even more on issues of race and immigration, while Farage is more circumspect in his populism. Farage seems to want to create a Mark II Conservative Party; Lowe wants a new MAGA-style movement.
What are the examples in terms of Reform UK policy?
The most explosive and emotive is the continuing argument about the rape gangs. Farage says he wants those who are foreign criminals to be deported (which is already the formal legal position). But Lowe goes much further, adding what he calls “complicit” family members of the rapists, because he assumes they knew what was going on – and he would extend deportation to those with British citizenship, born in the UK but with Pakistani dual citizenship or, possibly, the right to claim it (which they would have if either parent was a Pakistani citizen).
Lowe sets it out directly: “There was a belief from senior Reform figures that my language on the rape gangs was too strong, too robust, too tough. Why pander? Why appease? Why dilute? To appeal to the ‘middle ground’? I do not care. We must do what’s right, and we must be honest.” Lowe admires the way Donald Trump weaponised “mass deportation” for electoral gain.
Farage defends his decision to “censor” a speech by Lowe at a rally in Kemi Badenoch’s North West Essex constituency because he judged that the phrase “mass deportations” is “a very grave, dark and dangerous use of language”.
At stake are two conceptions of populist nationalism – “civic nationalism” favoured by the Tory hard right and Farage; or “ethnic-nationalism” preferred by some in Reform and in the outer fringes of the right.
And Tommy?
The even more divisive figure of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, commonly known as “Tommy Robinson” does crop up. Farage finds him anathema, but Lowe is more sympatico to the former leader of the English Defence League, currently in jail for contempt of court: “I say he’s not right for Reform, he doesn’t want to be right for Reform, but he doesn’t deserve not to be given the credit for the things that he’s done … I don’t know what he’s done and why he’s in prison”.
Will it hurt Reform?
Aside from Farage, the wider public doesn’t care who Rupert Lowe is and the complicated arguments haven’t “cut through” – but Reform UK the “clown show” probably has and will damage their claims to be a professional organisation ideally placed to run a multicultural nuclear-armed G7 economy. In truth, Farage’s scepticism about the NHS, closeness to Trump and sympathies for Putin’s war in Ukraine are bigger turn-offs for the voters.
What next?
Farage has arranged things such that he can’t realistically be forced to quit as leader, but could easily threaten to, adding to the psychodrama. With the backing of the public, and of Musk and his cash, Lowe could set up a new party with other ex-Farage associates such as Ben Habib; or try to launch a “unite the right” party via Ukip, which is still, just, going.
