Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe escalate feud with new war of words
The bitter war of words between Nigel Farage and Reform MP Rupert Lowe has dramatically escalated with the pair launching fierce new personal attacks on each other.
Mr Farage revealed accusations of bullying by Mr Lowe and accused him of falling out with all his fellow Reform UK MPs, with too many “outbursts” using “inappropriate language”.
And he took the highly unusual step of quoting a Labour minister, Mike Kane, who said after a confrontation with Mr Lowe in the Commons that his anger “showed a man not in charge of his own faculties”.
On Friday, party chairman and Farage lieutenant Zia Yusuf and chief whip Lee Anderson MP disclosed accusations that two female workers had complained of “serious bullying” in Mr Lowe’s offices, and said he had been reported to police over allegations he threatened Mr Yusuf with physical violence.
Mr Lowe, who has been suspended by the parliamentary party, denied the claims.
The worsening of the feud between the Reform UK leader and the millionaire MP for Great Yarmouth came in articles in The Sunday Telegraph in which they both furiously attacked each other.
Lowe alleges ‘witch hunt’
Mr Lowe stepped up his verbal onslaught on Mr Farage by claiming that a “witch hunt” against him risked destroying Reform’s attempts at removing Labour from power.
And he claimed that at a time when Reform UK’s poll ratings were rising the attacks on him by the party would be a turn-off to voters, declaring: “Infighting failed the Tories – and it’s failing Reform.”
Mr Farage also began his Telegraph article by claiming: “If the last general election taught us anything, it is that the public does not like political parties that engage in constant infighting.”
But he claimed that thanks to Mr Lowe “unloading a barrage of criticisms against our operations and its main actors”, Reform’s unity has been dented.
Rupert Lowe MP. Pic: PA
‘Containment strategies invariably fail’
Mr Farage said Mr Lowe had “managed to fall out with all his parliamentary colleagues in one way or another”, adding: “We did our best to keep a lid on things but, in the end, containment strategies invariably fail.”
He then referred to a Commons clash with Mr Kane just before Christmas, after Mr Lowe staged a debate about a damaged ship containing toxic cargo docked in his Great Yarmouth constituency.
“Mr Lowe was unhappy with the answer that he received from Mr Kane and, at the end of the debate, he crossed the floor to make his feelings known,” Mr Farage wrote.
“A confrontation ensued. Heated language was heard. The minister’s shoulder was pushed. In the end, the Serjeant at Arms had to step in to calm things down between the two parliamentarians.
“Commenting on Mr Lowe’s conduct later, Mr Kane (said) ‘the anger displayed towards me clearly showed a man not in charge of his own faculties’. Nobody in Reform UK said anything publicly about what had happened. Instead, we carried on.
“Yet the fact is that, sadly, there have been too many similar outbursts from Mr Lowe, often involving the use of inappropriate language, to the despair of our chief whip, Lee Anderson.
“I have been surprised and saddened at this behaviour. Certainly, I never saw anything like it in the European Parliament in 2019 when I was the leader of the Brexit Party and Mr Lowe was an MEP colleague.”
Read more:
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(L-R) Nigel Farage and party chairman Zia Yusuf. Pic: PA
On bullying allegations, Mr Farage wrote: “Last week, the chairman of Reform UK, Zia Yusuf, showed me two letters sent by female members of staff to our party headquarters. Each letter contained an accusation of workplace bullying involving Mr Lowe.
“One of the incidents in question is alleged to have taken place within the parliamentary estate. Both women’s letters stated that these allegations had been reported to the parliamentary authorities.
“As a responsible political party, Reform UK has a duty of care to every single member of staff, whether they are employed by us directly or indirectly.
“With that in mind, I believe that our chairman was entirely right for Reform to appoint a KC to conduct an independent inquiry. It is inconceivable that we could simply ignore such allegations.”
Pic: PA
‘I will not tolerate these falsehoods’
In his Telegraph article, Mr Lowe repeated his claim that there is no credible evidence against him and he was removed from the party before any investigation had started.
“I will not tolerate these falsehoods, and discussions have already taken place with my legal team,” he wrote. “Is it a surprise that these allegations were made public the day after I made reasonable criticisms of Nigel Farage and the Reform leadership?
“It is a witch hunt, plain for all to see. I have been entirely frozen out of the Reform machine over the last few months, in a deliberate and calculated way.”
Without naming Mr Farage, deputy leader Richard Tice or Mr Yusuf, he said the Reform UK leadership was unable even to accept the most mild constructive criticism.
Turning on Mr Yusuf, he wrote: “The allegations against me from the chairman relate to an incident in December, but he only reported them to the police the day after my reasonable questioning was published.
“Take from that what you will. I don’t feel sorry for myself. I feel sorry for the millions of decent British men and women who put their faith in Reform. They deserve better than this vicious charade.”
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And warning of the damage the feuding was causing, Mr Lowe said: “Everything has been put at risk. Everything. The future of the Right in Britain is now in peril. How can Reform claim to be a party awaiting government when they can’t even follow basic process?
“Reform has been rising in the polls for months. But this spectre of infighting will leave the party looking unserious and turn voters off. Infighting failed the Tories – and it’s failing Reform.”
But Mr Lowe concluded with an olive branch. “On multiple occasions, I have invited Nigel Farage for dinner over the last few months,” he revealed. “Every single one has been refused or ignored.
“Again, I offer a public invitation to Nigel. Let’s have dinner and resolve this in the matter that our members, supporters and country would expect. Any time, any place.”
He added: “I want Reform to be professional, to be fair, to be serious. We must offer a credible alternative to the uniparty that has so failed so spectacularly.
“The leadership’s behaviour this week has undermined that cause, not only in the eyes of the electorate, but also in those of serious individuals across business and industry that any party of government needs to win over.”
Acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) John Durham has departed as President Donald Trump’s pick takes control of the office.
In a May 5 notice, the US Attorney’s Office for EDNY said Joseph Nocella will serve as interim US Attorney for the region for 120 days or until a Senate-confirmed nominee assumes the role. Nocella’s appointment came as jury selection began in the criminal trial of Braden John Karony, the former CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon.
It’s unclear how the advancement of Nocella, appointed by US President Donald Trump this month, could affect prosecutors’ case against Karony, who faces charges of securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. Nocella said he intended to help prosecute “narcotics-traffickers, gang members, terrorists, human-traffickers and other criminals.”
The former SafeMoon CEO asked the court in February to consider pushing back the start of the trial based on “significant changes” Trump had proposed affecting US securities laws, potentially impacting his criminal case.
Related: What do crypto users want to happen to Alex Mashinsky?
Though not as well known for criminal cases involving high-profile figures in the crypto industry, the Eastern District of New York has been responsible for overseeing cases against individuals tied to digital assets, including a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) complaint against Hex founder Richard Heart and fraudsters.
Its neighboring district, the Southern District of New York, will oversee the sentencing of former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky on May 8. Jay Clayton, a Wall Street insider and the former chair of the SEC, became the interim US Attorney for the district in April.
Criminal trial to start on May 6
SafeMoon’s Karony, Kyle Nagy, and Thomas Smith were charged in November 2023 for “diverted and misappropriated millions of dollars’ worth” of the platform’s SFM token between 2021 and 2022. Karony has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has been free on a $3 million bond since February 2024.
In a May 5 filing, Karony agreed to have jury selection for his trial proceed under US Magistrate Judge James Cho. District Judge Eric Komitee is expected to oversee the trial starting on May 6.
Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight
US President Donald Trump’s crypto businesses are drawing increased scrutiny on Capitol Hill and beginning to influence the progress of US digital asset legislation. As Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives unveiled their draft of a digital asset market structure bill on May 5, Democrats prepared for a united response to Donald Trump’s deepening connections with the industry.
Speaking to Cointelegraph on May 5, a Democratic staffer with knowledge of the matter said that House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters planned to lead some members of her party out of a Republican-led hearing discussing digital assets. The May 6 hearing, entitled “American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets” and led by Committee Chair French Hill, could address draft legislation proposed by Republican lawmakers to establish a crypto market regulatory structure.
In a May 5 statement, Rep. Hill and three top Republicans unveiled the draft bill, which could clarify the treatment of digital assets by the US’s financial regulators: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Hill and others echoed some of Trump’s talking points on crypto — e.g, making the US a “crypto capital of the world” — suggesting deference to the president’s previously announced policies.
The draft bill included a provision requiring the SEC and CFTC to issue joint rules defining digital commodities. According to the text, transactions involving digital commodities “shall be deemed not to be an offer or sale of an investment contract” as long as the purchaser did not have “an ownership interest or other interest in the revenues, profits, or assets.”
According to the Democratic staffer, rules required all members of the House Financial Services Committee to agree to move forward with the digital asset hearing, suggesting that Waters intended to block the Republican-controlled event and conduct a shadow hearing to explore Trump’s and his family’s ties to the crypto industry. At least nine Democrats have reportedly considered a similar move to oppose a proposed stablecoin bill in the Senate.
Calls for impeachment, criticism from both sides
Some members of Congress have already called for Trump’s impeachment after he offered the opportunity for some of his top memecoin holders to tour the White House and attend a private dinner. In addition to the memecoin, the president’s family has backed the firm World Liberty Financial, which recently launched its own stablecoin, and an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm used the USD1 stablecoin to settle a $2 billion investment in Binance.
Related: US Senator calls for Trump impeachment, cites memecoin dinner
Waters, according to the staffer, requested that Hill and Republicans amend any proposed legislation to explicitly prevent potential conflicts of interest in which Trump could personally enrich himself through crypto ventures. Cointelegraph reached out to Hill’s office but did not receive a response at the time of publication. The Arkansas lawmaker reportedly said in March that the Trump family’s involvement in the crypto industry makes related legislation “more complicated.”
Republican lawmakers in the United States currently have control of the House, Senate, and presidency. At least two senators supportive of Trump have criticized his memecoin dinner, hinting that the president was selling access to his office. It’s unclear at the time of publication who among the memecoin holders could attend the May 22 dinner in person.
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
Asset manager VanEck has asked US regulators for permission to list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) holding BNB, the native token of Binance’s BNB Chain, regulatory filings show.
The ETF is designed to accumulate spot BNB (BNB) tokens and “may, from time to time, stake a portion of the [fund’s] assets through one or more trusted staking providers,” according to the ETF’s S-1 prospectus. The filing marks the first time an asset manager has filed for a BNB ETF in the United States.
The BNB token has a market capitalization of roughly $84 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap. As of May 5, BNB stakers earn a yield of approximately 2.5%, according to data from Stakingrewards.com.
Binance’s BNB Chain is among the most popular smart contract networks, with a total value locked (TVL) of nearly $6 billion, according to data from DefiLlama.
Related: Binance co-founder CZ proposes Bitcoin, BNB for Kyrgyzstan reserves
Bitcoin’s “spillover” effect?
The filing comes days after Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao reportedly said he expects the popularity of Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs to eventually “spill over” into altcoins.
“This cycle so far has been the ETFs. And it’s almost all Bitcoin. Ether hasn’t had as much success but Bitcoin success will spill over to the others eventually,” CZ reportedly said during the Token2049 conference in Dubai.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted net inflows of more than $40 billion since launching in January of 2024, according to data from Farside Investors.
VanEck’s filing is the newest in a flurry of filings seeking to list ETFs holding altcoins.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has acknowledged dozens of cryptocurrency ETF proposals since US President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20.
They include plans for ETFs holding native layer-1 tokens such as Solana (SOL) as well as memecoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE).
VanEck has filed to list other cryptocurrency ETFs over the past few months, including funds holding Solana and Avalanche (AVAX).
Magazine: ZK-proofs are bringing smart contracts to Bitcoin — BitcoinOS and Starknet
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