Ex-Reform MP to sue Farage over bullying allegations

Rupert Lowe, the former Reform UK MP who lost the whip in March, has announced he will be suing Nigel Farage and two other senior party figures for defamation after they accused him of bullying staff and making verbal threats.

- Peter Walker

Lowe, who now sits as an independent MP, said he was suing Farage, the Reform leader, along with Lee Anderson, the party's chief whip, and Zia Yusuf, the party chair, for comments he said had "caused serious harm to my reputation".

The Great Yarmouth MP was suspended after Anderson and Yusuf issued a joint statement saying the party had "received complaints from two female employees about serious bullying" in Lowe's offices, and that Lowe had at least twice made threats of violence against Yusuf.

Lowe has vehemently rejected all the allegations, arguing that he was targeted after he used a media interview to call for changes to Reform so it was centred less around Farage's "messianic" leadership.