Will Reform row end hopes of being serious opposition?

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.

- SEAN O'GRADY

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.”