Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe will not face criminal charges over alleged threats made against Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf.
While Nigel Farage’s Reform UK rides high in the polls on the back of a historic victory in the recent elections in England, internal drama continues to haunt the upstart party.
On Monday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that it has decided not to pursue any criminal charges against Rupert Lowe, saying that after interviewing a number of witnesses, it has “concluded that there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.”
Head of the CPS, Malcolm said per the BBC: “The Crown Prosecution Service’s function is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent, and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for a criminal court to consider.
“Based on the careful consideration of this evidence, we have decided that our legal test for a criminal prosecution has not been met.”
Lowe, who was among five MPs sent to parliament last year by Reform, was suspended and later expelled from the party over allegations that he had threatened chairman Zia Yusuf and that he fostered an environment in his office that resulted in harassment of female staff.
The now independent MP has consistently denied all allegations and said on Wednesday that they were a part of a “brutal smear campaign” against him. Lowe claimed that the dispute demonstrated that Mr Farage should not be prime minister, calling his former leader a “coward and a viper”.
Lowe had fallen out with party leadership earlier this year after he publicly questioned Farage’s leadership style in an interview with the Daily Mail.
In the interview, Lowe described the Brexit boss as being “messianic” and claimed that Reform functioned as a “protest party.” This came in the wake of Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggesting that Lowe take over the party.
While the dispute between Lowe and the party drove considerable conversation on social media, it has apparently not impacted the polls, with Reform maintaining a lead over both Labour and the Conservatives.
Growing anger over the political establishment’s failure to curtail immigration also led to the party’s greatest electoral success earlier this month. It picked up a staggering 678 local council seats, another seat in parliament, and two mayoral elections.
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