Political Reporter
A lawyer investigating former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe has found “credible evidence” he and his staff mistreated two female team members in ways that “seem to amount to harassment”.
Jacqueline Perry KC, employed by Reform to investigate after complaints were raised in February, found evidence of “victimisation, constant criticisms and discriminatory behaviour”.
Parliamentary officials have launched a separate bullying probe into Lowe. Meanwhile, the Met Police is investigating Lowe after Reform accused him of threatening “physical violence” against the party’s chairman.
The Great Yarmouth MP denied the claims and said his suspension was a reaction to criticising party leader Nigel Farage.
Following the report’s publication, Reform UK told the BBC Lowe had been expelled from the parliamentary party.
Reform is also in the process of cancelling Lowe’s party membership.
He was suspended earlier this month, following allegations he had threatened party chairman Zia Yusuf in December.
The move leaves Reform with four MPs in Parliament, after the party received the third-most votes overall in last year’s general election.
Farage told the BBC the lawyer’s report showed the party was “right to be concerned” about allegations made against Lowe.
Asked if there was any way back for him into the party, the Reform leader said “it would be very difficult” given Lowe was rejecting the KC’s report.
Most of the allegations were against other members of Lowe’s team.
But in her report, Ms Perry said “complaints were made directly in respect of the conduct of Mr Lowe”.
Ms Perry found: “There is veracity in the complaints from both women which amounts [to] ‘credible evidence'”.
Ms Perry said Lowe also failed to “address the alleged toxic conduct” of male colleagues in the office, and refused to act on complaints.
One of the complainants claimed she was met with “hostility and disdain” from Lowe when she raised concerns, the report said.
“At the very least Mr Lowe should have taken seriously the distress and concerns,” it added.
Lowe had a “duty and responsibility to ensure systems were in place to avoid junior members of staff being treated in any unfair and discriminatory way”, she added.
Concluding her report, Ms Perry said there was a “real risk” that the alleged treatment could be a breach of the Equality Act.
Ms Perry said her role was not to determine any criminality but to assess the “veracity” of the bullying and harassment allegations against Lowe and his staff, determine any legal implications, and recommend measures to prevent future incidents.
She recommended Reform should be “quite strict” about ensuring party members were “fully acquainted” with parliamentary rules on bullying and discrimination laws.
Lowe had previously claimed that Ms Perry had contacted him to say she found “no credible” evidence against him – leading to the KC to contact the BBC to rebut his claims.
Responding to the report, Lowe said in a social media post: “There was no bullying. There never has been any bullying. Using such claims to damage me through my staff is shameful.”
Lowe insisted the claims are “outright lies” and called the process “disgustingly biased”.
The MP, who has sat as an independent since his suspension, said: “Reform has put my team through hell in an attempt to smear my reputation.”
He claimed that the two women only came forward after disciplinary action was taken against them – a claim contradicted by the report.
The report said one of the women made the initial allegations of “bullying and unacceptable conduct from a particular individual in the constituency office” on 18 December last year.
She also formally made her complaint to the Parliamentary Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) in January.
The complaints by both women were raised “prior to any disciplinary procedures set in motion by Lowe against each of them”, the report said.
The report added: “Any suggestion from Mr Lowe, as he has made in the media, that these women complained following the instigation of disciplinary proceedings against either of them is incorrect.”
Lowe repeated his claim Reform only began investigating the complaints after he publicly criticised leader Farage in an interview with the Daily Mail.
Lowe was suspended from the party two days after the interview was published.
In his statement, Lowe said he had “cooperated and spoken at length with the KC [Reform] instructed, at great cost to the party, to investigate a minor staff matter.”
But the report stated Lowe had “declined to formally respond to the complaints” and pointed to a message Lowe had posted on social media, where he said he would “not be engaging with the Reform ‘investigation’ into blatantly vexatious complaints”.
The BBC has been told Ms Perry did not expect her report to be published on Tuesday, with the decision to do so taken by the party.
She had given Lowe until Wednesday to reply to her requests for information, although it was not anticipated that he would engage further.
