Reform’s Lowe Blow

Will Rupert Lowe’s exile cause Reform UK to return to wandering in the political desert?

If you check the comments beneath any Reform UK tweet, you might notice that beloved MP Rupert Lowe has been banished. Conflict was bound to brew after Lowe surpassed Farage as Elon Musk’s favored leader of Reform. One source told the Telegraph, “As soon as Rupert’s speech got more applause than Nigel’s at conference, that was the end of him.” Adam Limb understood Richard Tice’s policy to tax renewable subsidies as a retaliation against Lowe, who owns a battery-storage company. But nobody came to blows until last week, when provocateur Harry Cole of the Sun presented quotes from Lowe’s interview with Andrew “Tory Boy” Pierce of the Mail, strip-mined of their context, to Farage as a challenge to his leadership. Farage responded, saying “We are not a protest party in any way at all”, and suggesting that Lowe may not be a Reform MP at the next election. In the ensuing hours, commentators added “complex” to Lowe’s comment that Farage has “messianic qualities” — putting words in Lowe’s mouth.