Have Reform blown it?
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As predicted – and despite all the talk of professionalisation – Nigel Farage’s latest political outfit is following the pattern of the parties that came before: infighting. On Friday night, the Reform party stripped Rupert Lowe of the whip after referring him to the police. Lowe stands accused of workplace bullying and threatening behaviour towards party chair Zia Yusuf. These are allegations that he strongly denies, calling the whole affair a ‘witch hunt’. How long has there been tension between Lowe and the party leadership? Can Reform recover from losing 20 per cent of their presence in the Commons?
James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Gawain Towler, former head of communications for Reform.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Megan McElroy.
Transcript
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| 0:46.3 | Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm James Hill and I'm joined today by The Spectators |
| 0:50.1 | Political Editor, Katie Balls, and former director of Head of Communications, Gwain Towler. |
| 0:54.6 | Now, Katie, it's been a big 72 hours in the world of reform. Talk us through what's been |
| 0:59.6 | happening. So we've heard a lot about the professionalisation of the Reform Party. And I think |
| 1:05.2 | actually it was the same trio as currently assembled. Just before Christmas, we're talking about |
| 1:09.7 | whether 2025 be the year of Farage. |
| 1:12.8 | And we did mention that infighting could be a problem. |
| 1:17.0 | And it turns out that infighting is a problem. |
| 1:20.4 | You had on Friday the news that, through a statement from the Reform Party, |
| 1:25.9 | that Rupert Lowe, one of the parties's five MPs, MP for Great Yarmouth, |
| 1:30.5 | had been referred to the police by the Reform Party, was facing two complaints allegedly involving |
| 1:38.1 | staff members, and was also accused of threatening behaviour towards the party chairman, Zia Yusuf. |
| 1:44.8 | As we're pointing out, that Rupert Lowe denies all these charges, has suggested this could be an elaborate witch hunt, and links it to bad blood between himself and Niger Farage and others in the Reform Party. |
| 1:57.4 | And of course, just a few days before this happened on Friday, there was an interview |
... |
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