Ding ding ding! To the latest round of political infighting, involving Reform UK and its former MP Rupert Lowe. The independent report commissioned by Nigel Farage’s party into the suspended politician has been released today – and, for Lowe, its conclusions won’t make for comfortable reading…
The 13-page report describe the complaints of bullying and misconduct alleged to have taken place in Lowe’s office. After interviewing two female staff who lodged complaints against the office of the now-Independent MP, Jacqueline Perry KC concluded that Lowe ‘seems to have failed or been unwilling to address’ the concerns of the complainants and the ‘alleged toxic culture’ of his staff. More than that, Perry notes the Great Yarmouth MP ‘failed to understand’ it was his duty to ensure staff weren’t treated discriminatorily. Lowe has claimed the whole matter is a ‘smear’ against him and has fumed on Twitter that his former employees only raised issues after they had faced disciplinary action – which, on seeing the evidence, Perry disputes. Crikey.
Delivering her verdict today, Perry highlighted concerns that the behaviour raised by the complainants could, if true, have breached the Equality Act. She went on:
Mr Lowe seems to have failed or been unwilling to address the very real concerns of his parliamentary secretary as well as failing to address the alleged toxic conduct of both Wedon and Harrison when this became known to him. Moreover, he seems to have failed to understand that it was his duty and responsibility to ensure systems were in place to avoid junior members of staff being treated in any unfair and discriminatory way.
The ‘failures’ on the part of the women that have been highlighted by Mr Lowe and resulted in disciplinary procedures being taken against them seem flimsy in the extreme and would have been unlikely, in my opinion, to have warranted disciplinary action much less dismissal. They have the appearance of a defensive stance taken once the complaints had been made as the timings support.
But Lowe isn’t backing down without a fight. Taking to social media this afternoon, he tweeted furiously about the complaint timeline. Insisting that his now-infamous Daily Mail interview – in which he criticised various aspects of Reform UK’s leadership – was flagged to Farage’s team on the 26 February, Lowe questioned the fact both women’s complaints were raised to party chairman Zia Yusuf the next day. ‘Why did it take almost a month for these to be raised within Reform? The day after the Reform leadership was made aware of my mildly critical interview?’ he fumed. It’s certainly an interesting point…
The Great Yarmouth MP also claimed the members of his team publicly named in the report are ‘in touch with a legal team’ after being ‘libelled and endangered’ – and has announced he will be contacting the Speaker to discuss the latest development. He went on to rage:
Vexatious complaints, designed to cause as much damage as possible – which Reform has seized to smear my name. A fictitious one-sided version of events. It’s one thing to go for me. But to publicly name and attack my staff to smear my name? That’s not right or fair.
It’s all heating up now, eh? Get the popcorn in…
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