The Met Police have dropped their investigation into former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe, and will not bring charges over allegations he threatened a senior member of Nigel Farage’s party.
Reform reported Lowe to the police in March alleging that he had made physical threats of violence against the party’s chair Zia Yusuf between December 2024 and February 2025.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Lowe accused Farage of a “sinister attempt to weaponise the criminal justice system against me — putting not just my political future, but my liberty at risk”.
The police probe came amid a public spat between Lowe and Farage after the former Reform MP publicly accused the party leader of having “messianic qualities” and said he “has to learn to delegate, as not everything can go through one person”.
Lowe added that “it’s my view that the police process was weaponised to silence a party colleague who raised reasonable concerns”.
“If Farage were ever to control the vast power of the British state, I believe he would not hesitate to do to his adversaries what they have tried to do to me. With real power, I fear he would wield that immense responsibility to crush dissent — as he has done time and again over the years.
“Farage is no leader — he is a coward and a viper. I feel deeply embarrassed that I ever thought he was the man to lead,” he added.
Reform’s support has surged in recent months in spite of the spat. The party triumphed in the local elections across England this month, clinching 31 per cent of the vote share and 677 council seats, as well as two mayoralties and the parliamentary seat of Runcorn and Helsby.
An ally of Lowe said there had been discussions among a number of former Reform officials, including the party’s former deputy leader Ben Habib, about forming an alternative political project.
The person acknowledged, however, that there would be huge challenges in trying to rival Farage, who is one of the most influential figures in British politics.
Malcolm McHaffie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime Division, said the unit had concluded that there was “insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction”.
“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,” he said.
“Based on the careful consideration of this evidence, we have decided that our legal test for a criminal prosecution has not been met.”
US tech billionaire Elon Musk indicated he was planning to make a donation to Reform in December 2024, but then dramatically soured on Farage at the start of this year after the party leader refused to agree with his position on far-right agitator Tommy Robinson.
Musk has continued to express support for Lowe, and endorse his content on X, and has suggested to allies in the UK that he could support an alternative rightwing political outfit that Lowe was part of, according to people briefed on the discussions.
