{"id":263289,"date":"2025-03-20T22:44:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T22:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/rupert-lowe-says-reform-leader-nigel-farage-must-never-be-pm-in-latest-attack-amid-leaks-of-whatsapp-messages\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T22:44:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T22:44:23","slug":"rupert-lowe-says-reform-leader-nigel-farage-must-never-be-pm-in-latest-attack-amid-leaks-of-whatsapp-messages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/rupert-lowe-says-reform-leader-nigel-farage-must-never-be-pm-in-latest-attack-amid-leaks-of-whatsapp-messages\/","title":{"rendered":"Rupert Lowe says Reform leader Nigel Farage &#8216;must never be PM&#8217; in latest attack amid leaks of WhatsApp messages"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/03\/1920x1080\/skynews-rupert-lowe-nigel-farage_6849306.jpg?20250307184601&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Rupert Lowe says Reform leader Nigel Farage &#8216;must never be PM&#8217; in latest attack amid leaks of WhatsApp messages\" title=\"Rupert Lowe says Reform leader Nigel Farage &#8216;must never be PM&#8217; in latest attack amid leaks of WhatsApp messages\" \/><\/div>\n<div data-component-name=\"ui-article-body\" data-highlight-intro=\"true\">\n<p>Ousted Reform MP Rupert Lowe has said Nigel Farage must &#8220;never be prime minister&#8221; after leaked messages came to light reigniting the party&#8217;s internal row.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Lowe, now the independent MP for Great Yarmouth, launched his latest attack on Reform&#8217;s &#8220;rotten and deceitful&#8221; leadership after a private WhatsApp conversation between Mr Farage and a party activist was leaked to the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>In the messages, Mr Farage is alleged to have called Mr Lowe &#8220;disgusting&#8221; and &#8220;contemptible&#8221; after he gave an interview to the Daily Mail that was critical of his leadership.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/politics-latest-live-starmer-speech-ukraine-zelenskyy-war-trump-welfare-cuts-tories-reform-12593360\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Politics latest: PM demands &#8216;military plans&#8217; for Ukraine<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He also allegedly claimed that Mr Lowe&#8217;s motivation for the interview was &#8220;damaging the party just before elections &#8211; disgusting&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In a post on social media, Mr Lowe said the alleged leaked messages &#8220;prove that he [Mr Farage] kicked me out of the party and launched this malicious witch hunt because I dared to ask reasonable questions of Reform&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;His visceral hatred of me is evident, particularly following the Daily Mail interview,&#8221; Mr Lowe continued.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sdc-article-widget sdc-article-tweet\" data-component-name=\"sdc-article-tweet\" data-consent=\"pending\" data-vendor-name=\"twitter\">\n<section aria-label=\"Consent required\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock\" data-component-name=\"ui-consent-roadblock\" data-aspect-ratio=\"\" style=\"--width: 7; --height:4;\">\n<div class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body\">\n        <span class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__title\">X<\/span><br \/>\n            <span class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__description\" data-show-on-fallback=\"false\"><br \/>\n                This content is provided by <span class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__vendor-title\">X<\/span>, which may be using cookies and other technologies.<br \/>\n                To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.<br \/>\n                You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable <span class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__vendor-title\">X<\/span> cookies or to allow those cookies just once.<br \/>\n                You can change your settings at any time via the <a href=\"#privacy-options\">Privacy Options<\/a>.<br \/>\n            <\/span><br \/>\n            <span class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__description\" data-show-on-fallback=\"true\"><br \/>\n                Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to <span class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__vendor-title\">X<\/span> cookies.<br \/>\n                To view this content you can use the button below to allow <span class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__vendor-title\">X<\/span> cookies for this session only.<br \/>\n            <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link-group\">\n                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-permanently\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-show-on-fallback=\"false\">Enable Cookies<\/a><br \/>\n                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-once\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\">Allow Cookies Once<\/a>\n            <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Farage has admitted himself, in writing, that the motivation behind my removal was the Daily Mail interview, in<br \/>which I raised reasonable and constructive questions of Reform structure, policy and communication &#8211; following<br \/>months of pushing for change behind the scenes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That interview is why they designed and launched their horrific smear campaign against my name. It is evil behaviour.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nigel Farage must never be prime minister. All I have done is tell the truth, and I will continue to do so.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Responding to the alleged messages, Mr Farage said: &#8220;The messages were not with an activist but Mr Lowe&#8217;s own senior employee, the one facing the most serious bullying charges. The suspension was to protect the party, simple.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The newspaper attack on Reform UK is separate but dreadful. We have worked for 7 months to build a party capable of contesting the 1 May elections at scale. Mr Lowe has not helped us with this process at all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The row erupted after Mr Lowe&#8217;s interview with the Daily Mail, in which Mr Lowe said it was &#8220;too early to know&#8221; if Mr Farage will become prime minister and warned Reform remains a &#8220;protest party led by the Messiah&#8221; under the Clacton MP.<\/p>\n<p>He also claimed that he was &#8220;barely six months into being an MP&#8221; himself and &#8220;in the betting to be the next prime minister&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/topic\/reform-uk-10994\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reform UK<\/a><\/strong> then announced that it had referred the Great Yarmouth MP to police and suspended him, alleging he made &#8220;verbal threats&#8221; against chairman Zia Yousaf.<\/p>\n<p>The Met <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/met-police-launches-investigation-into-suspended-reform-mp-rupert-lowe-over-verbal-threats-13326300\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has launched an investigation into these claims<\/a><\/strong>, which Mr Lowe has vehemently denied.<\/p>\n<p>Reform has also claimed it has received complaints from two female employees about serious bullying in Mr Lowe&#8217;s constituency office &#8211; which the MP has also strenuously denied, saying they do not relate to him and were made by staff who themselves faced disciplinary action.<\/p>\n<p>On the allegations against the employees in his constituency office, Mr Lowe said he would &#8220;not be engaging&#8221; with the Reform &#8220;investigation&#8221;, arguing they were &#8220;blatantly vexatious complaints&#8221; made by former employees who themselves &#8220;admitted serious offences&#8221; and were subject to disciplinary processes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is no credible evidence of any &#8216;bullying&#8217; by anybody, because there was none,&#8221; he wrote in his social media post. &#8220;This has been weaponised in a desperate attempt to smear my name.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:<\/strong><br \/><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/starmer-defends-vital-benefit-cuts-as-he-cites-cases-of-his-late-mother-and-brother-13332557\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Starmer defends &#8216;vital&#8217; benefit cuts<\/a><\/strong><br \/><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/foreign-donations-to-uk-political-parties-set-to-be-restricted-amid-rumours-elon-musk-is-planning-to-give-80m-to-reform-13328570\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New rules may stop unlimited Reform donations from Musk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;If am contacted by the independent parliamentary authorities, I will fully cooperate with them. I have heard nothing from any relevant parliamentary body, nor have my team&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Last week Sky News reported that Mr Lowe is consulting lawyers about taking possible libel action against Reform UK, for making &#8220;untrue and false allegations&#8221; about him.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Lowe, the former chair of Southampton Football Club, has not ruled out <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/rupert-lowe-keeping-options-open-after-ousting-by-reform-uk-13326594\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">joining the Conservatives or another political party<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mr Farage has said there is &#8220;no way back&#8221; for the suspended MP and has accused him of being &#8220;out to cause maximum damage&#8221; to Reform UK.<\/p>\n<p>Sky News has approached Mr Farage for comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/rupert-lowe-says-reform-leader-nigel-farage-must-never-be-pm-in-latest-attack-amid-leaks-of-claimed-whatsapp-messages-13332136\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ousted Reform MP Rupert Lowe has said Nigel Farage must &#8220;never be prime minister&#8221; after leaked messages came to light reigniting the party&#8217;s internal row. Mr Lowe, now the independent MP for Great Yarmouth, launched his latest attack on Reform&#8217;s &#8220;rotten and deceitful&#8221; leadership after a private WhatsApp conversation between Mr Farage and a party [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/03\/1920x1080\/skynews-rupert-lowe-nigel-farage_6849306.jpg?20250307184601","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[2601,23751,305,1891,22405,196537,9319,20164,1793,54808,3197],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263291,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263289\/revisions\/263291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}