“There were people following us up the coast with torches. It was like a scene from Shrek

Charity rowers tell of ordeal after ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe posts social media messages accusing them of being illegal migrants

- John Simpson

The crew of the rowboat Crean had anticipated storms, cargo ships, cruise liners, yachts and even the risk of striking shipwrecks in the shallows. Nobody had foreseen the MP for Great Yarmouth threatening to have them deported.

"It was just another fairly mundane day," according to Matthew Parker, one of the organisers of the fourstrong crew's 900-mile (1,448km) journey from Land's End to John o'Groats to raise money for motor neurone disease (MND) research.

"We got round Dover on Wednesday, and that's a sort of highstress, high-tariff situation, and we'd headed offshore because of where the winds were, so it was a fairly quiet, benign day," said Parker. "We were just, you know, plodding through." The Row4MND were crossing the Thames estuary as day broke on Thursday morning. By nightfall, Rupert Lowe MP had posted an image of them on Instagram and X and a crowd had gathered on the beach to "stop the boat" - convinced the crew were asylum seekers.

The crew sleep and row in twohour shifts overnight, eating on their breaks. Parker had woken at 6am to take the oar, eating his breakfast overnight oats, dried fruit and powdered cream - as the sun rose.

"I work in London and I cross the Thames almost every day. You've no concept of how big the estuary is out there and how much is going on." He described waiting as towering Chinese container ships yawed past the tiny rowboat along the shipping lane.

The crossing took a total of five or six hours to row before they reached Felixstowe.

"So far, the beauty of the English and Welsh coastline has absolutely amazed me. There are so many things that you're just not aware of," said Parker.