Nigel Farage has been reported to the Parliamentary watchdog by former colleague Richard Lowe as the Reform civil war continues. Mr Lowe, who was elected as a Reform UK MP last year but is now an independent MP, made a complaint to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, who will now decide whether to carry out an investigation into Mr Farage, the Reform leader.
It comes after Reform UK said it had received complaints two female employees about serious bullying. Mr Lowe denies any wrongdoing. The party appointed senior barrister Jacqueline Perry KC to carry out an inquiry and then published a report in which she said there was “credible evidence” of harassment by Mr Lowe and two members of his constituency team. However there is a dispute about the decision to publish the report and whether Mr Lowe was given time to respond with his side of the story.
And the Telegraph reports that Mr Lowe has now made a complaint about Mr Farage to Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary standards commissioner for allegedly bringing Parliament into disrepute. Mr Lowe says the report named some of his staff and they are the victims of “unfounded and shameful allegations”.
A Reform source said: “Nothing changes the contents of the report, there is credible evidence he harassed women. The report was damning and clearly called out his many many many lies on social media.”
They said the barrister had clearly told Reform UK the party was free to choose when to publish the report.
Mr Lowe, MP for Great Yarmouth MP, lost the Reform whip earlier this month after the party said it had received evidence of “serious bullying” and “derogatory” remarks made about women in the MP’s offices. It means he now sits as an independent.
He has repeatedly denied the allegations against him, and claimed in a post on X on Tuesday afternoon that Reform is “shamefully attacking my innocent staff to smear my name”.
He added: “This is not right. It’s unprecedented in modern British politics.”
Reform UK said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon that an “independent King’s Counsel has found there to be credible evidence of unlawful harassment of two women by both Mr Lowe and male members of his team”.
Barrister Jacqueline Perry said in her report that Mr Lowe “seems to have failed or been unwilling to address the very real concerns” of the two complainants, or “address the toxic conduct” of male members of his staff.
She advised Reform to be “quite strict” about ensuring party members were “fully acquainted” with parliamentary rules.
She said: “Going forward I would advise the party hierarchy to be quite strict about ensuring that each member of the party is fully acquainted with the rules of Parliament as regards bullying and the provisions of the 2010 (Equality) Act given, I repeat, it is a really low threshold to be crossed to be able to bring such a claim against a member.
“The party wants to avoid any such unpleasantness, not just due to the risk of legal action but also out of common decency and respect for another person who is doing his/her best to do a good job.”
