A bitter row between MP Rupert Lowe and his former party Reform burst back into life today after an independent report into his behaviour found ‘credible evidence of unlawful harassment of two women’.
A probe into bullying complaints made against the rightwing Great Yarmouth MP and male members of his team was scathing about the way they treated two female members of staff.
Investigator Jacqueline Perry KC said 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.
The barrister, who represented Donald Trump in a UK court case earlier this year, was asked to investigate Mr Lowe after he was suspended earlier this month, triggering an astonishing public spat with Nigel Farage and the party leadership.
In a 13-page dossier released today she said that ‘victimisation, constant criticisms (and) discriminatory behaviour do seem to amount to harassment on the part of both Mr Lowe and his constituency team’.
Ms Perry said there was ‘veracity in the complaints from both women which amounts (to) ‘credible evidence’ – to use Mr Lowe’s own words’.
She added that workplace ‘failures’ that triggered disciplinary procedures by Mr Lowe against the two women appeared ‘flimsy in the extreme and would have been unlikely, in my opinion, to have warranted disciplinary action, much less dismissal’.
Mr Lowe denies any wrongdoing and says he was targeted by the party leadership for questioning the party leadership in a Daily Mail interview in which he said Mr Farage acted like a ‘messiah’.
After the report was released this afternoon he accused Reform of resorting to ‘woke HR lawfare to smear not only my name, but the reputation of my innocent and decent staff.’
A probe into complaints made against the Great Yarmouth MP by Jacqueline Perry KC ruled that ‘victimisation, constant criticisms (and) discriminatory behaviour do seem to amount to harassment on the part of both Mr Lowe and his constituency team’.
In the report released by Reform today, Ms Perry said he ‘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 was asked to investigate Mr Lowe after he was suspended earlier this month, triggering a bitter public spat with Nigel Farage and the party leadership.
A statement posted on Mr Lowe’s X account from his ‘entire team’ said: ‘These two women have vexatiously complained in an attempt to smear Rupert, and the entire team. And we are a team. We work together well.’
In a second tweet he added: ‘There is no evidence of any bullying, because there was none. No bullying, no aggressive behaviour, no violent threats. There are outright lies, unsurprisingly.’
He also repeated his accusation that they only made complaints after being hit with disciplinary action, a claim Ms Perry said was ‘incorrect’ in her report.
‘At the very least Mr. Lowe should have taken seriously the distress and concerns of a seasoned Parliamentary employee and of both women,’ she said.
‘If he felt that either did fall short of what was expected of them by him or his senior staff, then a careful and full meeting to discuss by way of appraisal what may have gone wrong and how it could be improved could have been undertaken before immediate disciplinary action was sought.
She advised Reform to be ‘quite strict’ about ensuring party members were ‘fully acquainted’ with parliamentary rules 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,’ she added.
Scotland Yard has launched a probe into 67-year-old Mr Lowe after a complaint was made about his conduct towards chairman Mr Yusuf. He denies any wrongdoing.
Mr Lowe was one of five MPs elected for Reform in last year’s election
