Reform UK has suspended MP Rupert Lowe and reported him to the police over alleged threats of physical violence towards the party’s chairman.

A statement from chair Zia Yusuf and chief whip Lee Anderson MP also said the party has received complaints from two female employees about alleged serious bullying in Mr Lowe’s offices.

Mr Yusuf and Mr Anderson said “we understand complaints have been made to parliamentary authorities”.

Mr Lowe, 67, has released a statement saying the allegations were “untrue and false”, the accusations of physical threats were “outrageous and entirely untrue”, and he referenced a “vexatious complaint” made by another staff member.

Mr Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth, has had the whip suspended, meaning he will sit as an independent MP in the House of Commons.

Mr Yusuf and Mr Anderson said in their statement that Mr Lowe had “on at least two occasions made threats of physical violence against” Mr Yusuf.

The statement said: “It is with regret that we feel obligated to disclose that the party received complaints from two female employees about serious bullying in the offices of the member of parliament for Great Yarmouth, Rupert Lowe.”

Claims of ‘disturbing pattern of behaviour’

It added: “Evidence was provided to us of workplace bullying, the targeting of female staff who raised concerns, and evidence of derogatory and discriminatory remarks made about women, including reference to a perceived disability.

“We feel we have a duty of care to all our staff, whether employed directly or indirectly. Accordingly, we appointed an independent King’s Counsel to conduct an investigation into the veracity of these complaints. To date, Mr Lowe has yet to cooperate with this investigation.

“In addition to these allegations of a disturbing pattern of behaviour, Mr Lowe has on at least two occasions made threats of physical violence against our party chairman. Accordingly, this matter is with the police.

“Reform stands for the highest standards of conduct in public life, and we will apply these standards without fear nor favour, including within our own party.”

Rumblings of leadership challenge

Earlier this week, Mr Lowe appeared to question Nigel Farage’s leadership of Reform UK.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Mr Lowe said: “Nigel is a fiercely independent individual and is extremely good at what we have done so far. He has got messianic qualities.

“Will those messianic qualities distil into sage leadership?

“I don’t know.”

He added: “I’m not going to be by Nigel’s side at the next election unless we have a proper plan to change the way we govern from top to bottom.”

During Mr Farage’s online falling out with Elon Musk, in which the Tesla businessman said Reform needed a new leader, Mr Lowe drew praise from Mr Musk.

And in the interview with the Daily Mail, Mr Lowe noted that he was “barely six months into being an MP” and “in the betting to be the next prime minister.”

‘Disappointed but not surprised’

In his response to the allegations, Mr Lowe said on Friday the party leadership had a “complete inability to accept even the most mild constructive criticism without such a malicious reaction”.

He said in a statement posted on X: “I am disappointed, but not surprised, to read Reform’s untrue and false allegations. Let me be abundantly clear – this investigation is based on zero credible evidence against me, as has been repeatedly stated by the neutral investigator. None has been provided.

“I have cooperated and spoken at length with the KC they instructed, at great cost to the party, to investigate a minor staff matter.”

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He claimed the lawyer was “dismayed” the statement from Reform UK had been published – and that the investigation had not even started.

Mr Lowe claimed the lawyer told him that “no credible evidence has been given”.

The MP added that he was sent an initial letter of complaint last Friday from the party with “no evidence provided”.

“I have never made any derogatory comments about women, or those with disabilities. This is a lie. These allegations are not even referring to me. I will be seeking legal advice immediately,” he added.

Analysis: Could Musk have triggered mess within Reform?

Liz Bates

Political correspondent

@wizbates

It sounds too weird to be true, but Elon Musk may very well be the reason that Reform UK is embroiled in a messy public battle with one of its five MPs.

Detailed and damning statements released on Friday look to be the culmination of months of growing division between Nigel Farage and Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe.

The allegations against him are serious, numerous and have triggered three possible investigations – from the party, the parliamentary authorities and the police.

His rebuttal is equally robust, indicating he will fight hard to clear his name.

But is this battle just about his behaviour? Or is it because of his leadership ambitions? And were they ignited after a bizarre intervention from across the pond?

In January, Musk posted on X, calling for Farage to step down, saying he wasn’t up to the job, and later suggested Lowe could step up as he ‘makes a lot of sense’.

Two months later and relations had broken down beyond repair, with a war of words erupting this week in the papers, in which Lowe called Farage messianic and he responded saying the MP probably wanted to be prime minister.

There is no doubt that an endorsement from the world’s richest man would flatter the ego of any aspiring politician.

But given Friday’s revelations, it seems that instead of kick-starting his rise to the top of Reform, Musk’s meddling has instead severed his ties with the party for good.

When it comes to his parliamentary career, salvaging his reputation could also prove difficult as other critical accounts of his character emerge.

Sky News has heard from Labour MP Mike Kane about an incident which took place in the Commons last December, during which he says he was “manhandled” by the then Reform MP.

The Transport minister described an angry scene in which Lowe had to be restrained by Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, and eventually broken up by the Sergeant at Arms.

Mr Lowe did not wish to comment on the claim, but it adds yet another obstacle in the fight for his political future.

‘Vexatious’ complaint

Mr Lowe continued: “It is no surprise that this vexatious statement has been issued the day after my reasonable and constructive questions of Nigel and the Reform structure. It was issued on X late on a Friday afternoon, with no prior warning.

“All I stated was that communication needs to improve, delegation needs to improve, structure needs to improve – these are all reasonable requests of a party looking to form the next government. I stand by everything I said.”

His response added: “I do not believe that Reform members will be pleased to know that their membership fees are being spent on instructing expensive lawyers to investigate their own MPs, over matters that are entirely baseless and have been dealt with in the correct Parliamentary procedure, with HR’s full involvement and support.

“The staff member in question only raised a vexatious complaint once disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against them for serious wrongdoing. The other individual mentioned, dropped her appeal.”

Read more:
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Mr Lowe said he had been trying to change the way Reform is run “behind the scenes” for many months, and urged his supporters to “stay with the party”.

He said: “This is our party as much as it is Nigel’s.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “On Thursday, 6 March we received an allegation of verbal threats made by a 67-year-old man on Friday, 13 December.

“Officers are carrying out an assessment of the allegations to determine what further action may be required.”

Two women and a man have been found guilty of spying for Russia in a huge espionage operation from a guesthouse in Great Yarmouth.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, a lab assistant from Harrow, north London, Vanya Gaberova, 30, a beautician from Acton, west London, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, a painter and decorator from Enfield, north London, have all been convicted of spying for Russia.

The women were both involved in relationships with Bizer Dzhambazov, 43, a medical courier who ran the ground operations of the spy ring.

The spy ring was run by Orlin Roussev, 46, a former City worker who set up a freelance espionage operation from a 33-room guesthouse in Great Yarmouth.

The spy ring’s contact in Moscow was an Austrian man called Jan Marsalek, 44, the former chief operating officer of a major finance and tech company called Wirecard which collapsed in 2020 amid allegations of a £1.6bn fraud.

All are Bulgarian nationals with EU-settled status after living in the UK for a number of years.

‘Jackie Chan’ and ‘Mad Max’ messages on spy ring

Roussev and Dzhambazov both pleaded guilty to espionage charges but the three others denied the charges. Wanted by the German authorities, Marsalek fled to Russia, where he allegedly ran the network.

The spy ring – which operated globally between August 2020 and February 2023 – was revealed in more than 80,000 messages recovered from Roussev and Dzhambazov on the encrypted Telegram messaging app, following their arrest in February 2023.

The pair adopted the names of martial arts film stars – Roussev was “Jackie Chan” and Dzhambazov was “Jean Claude Van Damme” or “Max Max”.

The cell was said to have used “sophisticated methodology” which included advanced technology and false identities in order to acquire information and imagery, before compiling detailed reports on their targets to send to Moscow.

One of the tasks of the spy ring was to gather information about dissidents and prominent individuals of interest to the Russians.

Spying target ‘seriously hated’ by Vladimir Putin

Their targets included Christo Grozev, a journalist who worked for the British investigative website Bellingcat and was responsible for identifying the GRU agents accused of poisoning MI6 double agent Sergei Skripal with Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury in March 2018.

Marsalek said Vladimir Putin “seriously hated” Grozev and contemplated killing him with a sledgehammer.

The spy ring conducted surveillance in Knightsbridge and Kensington in London and even considered using a drone to spray pigs’ blood over the Kazakhstan Embassy as part of a fake protest.

One operation that went ahead involved placing stickers around Vienna and Berlin to discredit Ukraine, including far right messages on a Jewish museum.

Alison Morgan KC, prosecuting, said: “By gathering the information and passing it on to the Russian state, the defendants were, make no mistake, putting many lives at risk.”

Matthew Collins, the UK deputy national security adviser, told the trial the Russians were seeking to “outsource” their covert operations in order to regain a foothold in Britain after the expulsion of spies following the poisoning of Sergei Skripal.

In one message Marsalek told Roussev: “A successful operation on British ground would be amazing after the f*** up Skripal stuff.”

£220,000 ‘Indiana Jones warehouse’

Roussev’s partner paid £220,000 for the Haydee Guesthouse in Prince’s Road, close to the seafront in Great Yarmouth.

He said he was “becoming Q”, the character from James Bond, and called the guesthouse his “Indiana Jones warehouse.”

When police raided the hotel as part of an operation, codenamed Skirp, they found it packed with technical equipment including 495 SIM cards, 221 mobile phones, 258 hard drives, 55 visual recording devices, 33 audio devices, 16 radios and 11 drones.

Police spent eight days combing through the property, which was packed to the ceiling with electronic surveillance equipment, including a £120,000 “law enforcement grade” IMSI grabber.

Much of it was “wearable technology” for recording video and audio such as wristwatches, pens, ties, sunglasses, cigarette lighter, car key fob and jewellery.

There were 91 bank cards in the names of 17 individuals and 75 passports and identity documents in 55 individuals’ names.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of Scotland Yard’s SO15, which deals with state threats, said it was one the largest spying investigations in the last 20 years.

“This was spying on an almost industrial scale on behalf of the Russian intelligence services and lots of their activity goes to the very heart of the freedoms and national security that we need to try and protect here in the UK,” he said.

The widow of a Post Office scandal victim, who received a compensation offer days after his death, has described the situation as an “utter disgrace”.

Janet Walters, 68, lost her husband Terry in February – a week before a letter arrived offering “less than half” of his original claim for financial redress.

Terry Walters – whose funeral is taking place today – was one of 555 sub-postmasters who won a legal battle against the Post Office in 2019.

Hundreds were falsely accused, and many wrongly convicted, of stealing from their branches between 1999 and 2015.

Janet has described the length of time many victims have had to wait for offers of compensation as another “scandal”.

“I’ve told them I will not accept [the offer],” Janet tells Sky News. “I think it’s an utter disgrace.

“Not when I look at him and I think, no, what you’ve been through – I won’t just take anything and go away.

“It’s a scandal what they did with the Horizon system, it’s a scandal now because of the length of time it’s taken [on redress].”

Terry, who died aged 74, was part of the GLO (Group Litigation Order) Scheme established after the 2019 High Court win.

Its aim is to restore sub-postmasters to the financial position they would have been in had they not become victims of faulty Horizon software which caused false accounting shortfalls.

Terry had his Post Office contract terminated in 2008. He and Janet lost their business and then their family home.

They moved in to rented accommodation where they lived for the past 15 years.

Janet said Terry’s claim was put forward in February 2024 and it has taken a year to receive an offer for redress from the government.

“It should have been a 40-day turnaround of an offer,” she says. “And it’s taken 12 months to receive an offer, an offer which came after Terry had passed away.

“They wanted a stroke report back in September to drag it out a bit more, to see if it’s being caused by all the stress from the Post Office.”

“I think it contributed considerably to the whole state of him,” she added.

Postmasters should be given ‘the benefit of the doubt’, says campaigner

Lord Beamish, a prominent campaigner for justice for Post Office victims, says the redress offer process should “err on the side of the postmaster rather than the Post Office”.

“I think it has been bureaucratic in the past, and I think it’s been trying to get information which is difficult to actually obtain,” he says.

“I think in those cases the benefit of the doubt should be put on the postmaster.”

Lord Beamish is also critical of the 40-working-day turnaround for offers.

“I think individual cases should be dealt with on an individual basis,” he says.

“That 40 days shouldn’t be sacrosanct. If you think it can be turned around within two days or a day, do it.”

He also says “getting people around a table and trying to get a resolution should be the main aim… If it’s questioning about more information – that shouldn’t be a reason for undue delay.”

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More than 3,500 sub-postmasters still waiting for compensation

Lord Beamish also highlights concerns over the fact more than 60 victims are yet to submit any claims for redress because they are “very damaged by this process”.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said: “We are sorry to hear of Terry’s death and our thoughts are with Janet and the rest of his family and friends.”

They added they have now issued 407 offers to the 425 GLO claimants “who have submitted full claims” and are “making offers to 89% of GLO claimants within 40 working days of receipt of a full claim, with over half of eligible claimants having now settled their claim.”

The DBT also said it has “doubled” the amount of payments under the Labour government to “provide postmasters with full and fair redress”.

The latest government data shows that out of the 425 GLO claimants, 265 have had their claims paid, with 160 waiting.

According to the figures for the HSS (Horizon Shortfall Scheme), 2,090 out of 2,417 eligible claims made before their original deadline in 2020 have been paid – leaving over 300 still waiting.

Out of the 4,665 “late” claims, 1,260 have been paid, with more than 3,400 now waiting.