It began with Elon Musk.
The schism at the top of Nigel Farage’s insurgent Reform UK party first appeared as cracks in the party’s unity that were highlighted on social media by the Tesla owner, Musk, in January. In the weeks since, the cracks became a fissure that has released a cloud of anxiety over Reform, despite its relentless march to near the top of opinion polls.
The bitter falling out over the last 10 days between party leader Farage and Rupert Lowe, one of the five Reform MPs who won seats in last July’s election, is a personification of two competing modes of thinking in the party – two different visions of its future. And two big egos.
With local elections and a Westminster byelection looming, party leader Farage spies an opportunity to win over more Conservative voters and, to that end, has tried to moderate some of his party’s messaging around immigration and race. Farage doesn’t want to scare off potential new supporters who might hold mainstream conservative views.
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Lowe and his backers, meanwhile, want Reform to maintain a far more vociferous line on race and immigration – they are the ultras to Farage’s pragmatists-of-sort. “Lowe’s people are also Tommy people,” a senior party figure told The Irish Times this week, referring to Tommy Robinson, the jailed hard-right anti-immigrant agitator whom Farage sees as a threat.
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Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has never been a member of Reform – Farage believes an extremist such as Robinson, should he ever be allowed to join, would make the party unelectable with mainstream voters due to his adjacency to race-fuelled conflict.
Meanwhile, Lowe, a wealthy businessman and former chairman of Southampton football club, has refused to distance himself from Robinson. Farage may be the big personality who dominates the party’s press coverage. Lowe, however, has, like Robinson, his own dedicated fan base online, where he is feted for his hardcore views.
Enter Musk in January. At the time, the billionaire businessman and aide to US president Donald Trump was relentlessly attacking Labour’s prime minister Keir Starmer for the handling of rape and grooming gangs, often reported to be men of South Asian descent who, in many cases, targeted white girls of English ethnicity. It is an incendiary issue in Britain.
Musk is also one of the “Tommy people” backing Robinson, who is in jail for contempt of court over the distribution of an anti-immigrant film he was involved in. That makes him a free speech martyr in the eyes of Musk.
The Tesla owner grew frustrated at Farage’s caution over the Robinson issue. On his social media platform X, he said that Farage “doesn’t have what it takes” to be party leader and suggested Lowe would do a better job: “I have not met Rupert Lowe but his statements online that I have read so far make a lot of sense.” Lowe had defended Robinson as a “political prisoner”.
Farage did not take Musk’s bait and eventually smoothed the dispute over with the billionaire Trump aide. At the time, Lowe also backed his party leader. That all changed on March 6th, when Lowe gave an interview to the Daily Mail questioning Farage’s credentials as a future prime minister. He said that Reform under Farage’s leadership was a “protest party led by the Messiah”.
The next day, Reform announced Lowe had been reported to the police for allegedly making physical threats against the party’s chairman and wealthy benefactor, Zia Yusuf, whom Farage brought in to professionalise its operations. Reform also said Lowe had been accused of bullying in his parliamentary office. The MP has denied any wrongdoing, saying there is “no credible evidence”.
Lowe has since claimed he had been frozen out of Reform meetings for seeking changes to how the party was run. He says it is too focused on one man – Farage – which might also be another way of saying he wants more focus on himself. He argues he was targeted for questioning the messiah.
The former Southampton chairman’s problem, however, is that in the eyes of the public, Reform is Farage. With Boris Johnson out of action, Farage is easily the biggest political name in the country, whereas a survey this week found that even a majority of Reform supporters don’t know Lowe.
Lowe has been suspended from the party and has had the whip removed – he must now sit in the House of Commons as an independent. Farage has suggested there is no way back for him. Lowe has drawn public support from Ben Habib, the scorned former deputy leader of the party whom Farage jettisoned when he returned to the fold last July. But Farage’s public heft means he should win out.
It hasn’t been the greatest of months for Farage, who has also been recently damaged by Starmer’s portrayal of him as an apologist for Russian president Vladimir Putin – Britons strongly support Ukraine.
But in politics it all comes down to numbers. Even with Reform’s recent speed wobbles, the most recent poll, released this week by Find Out Now, has it on 27 per cent, ahead of Labour on 24 per cent and the Tories on 21 per cent. Farage might be battling a distraction in Lowe, but he is playing a longer game.
