The Reform civil war has further escalated after Ben Habib, who was ousted as Deputy Leader by Nigel Farage after the election, is considering joining forces with suspended MP Rupert Lowe to form a new party in a challenge to Farage. The Telegraph has the story.
Ben Habib, the former Brexit party MEP, served as co-Deputy Leader for Reform until after the General Election, when Mr Farage replaced him with Richard Tice.
Mr Habib, who ran for Reform in the Wellingborough and Rushden by-election last year, then quit the party citing concerns about “control of the party and the decision-making processes”.
The politician has been an outspoken supporter of Mr Lowe, who was suspended by the party on Friday after being accused of bullying and making threats.
Mr Habib said that the Great Yarmouth MP is a “good friend” and he is “constantly in touch with” him, adding that the pair “are both in politics for the same reason”.
Asked if he would consider a return to front-line politics if Mr Lowe were to split from the party, he told the Telegraph: “Ultimately the reason I joined Reform and the reason I stood for Reform in Wellingborough is because the only way you can make a difference is electorally.”
He added: “You’ve got to be at the ballot box and hold the electoral system to account… so the answer is yes, I think.”
The comments signal that Mr Lowe and Mr Habib could form a splinter group on the Right to challenge Mr Farage and Reform.
Mr Lowe, a successful businessman, told the Daily Mail a day before his suspension that Mr Farage was acting like a “messiah” and criticised his ability to delegate.
On Friday, Reform announced it had reported Mr Lowe to the police over allegations that he made threats of physical violence against Zia Yusuf, its Chairman.
In a statement, it said Mr Lowe had also been accused of bullying two female members of staff. Mr Lowe has categorically denied the claims, which he described as a “witch hunt”.
The party is now conducting an independent inquiry into the allegations, having appointed a KC to investigate.
Mr Farage wrote in the Telegraph at the weekend that he had been “surprised and saddened” by behaviour exhibited by his colleague. …
Mr Lowe hit back and claimed that Reform had tried to silence him over his “outspoken” views on migration, and had been “warned” by party leadership.
He also claimed that the KC appointed to the investigation said there was “zero evidence” against him, but the lawyer involved denied making such comments to the BBC on Monday.
The Great Yarmouth MP has also claimed that the bullying complaints for which he was thrown out of the party were not about him.
Andrew Bridgen, a former Tory MP, said on X that one of the members of staff used to work in his parliamentary office.
He wrote on Monday: “The plot thickens. One of my former parliamentary aides went on to work for Rupert Lowe: she is one of the staff involved in these allegations against him.
“She has told me that her original complaint had nothing to do with Rupert personally and was related to the actions of another member of his staff. I have her permission to post this tweet.”
Lee Anderson, the Reform party whip, said in response: “The written complaints include allegations about the conduct of Mr Lowe. I ask that Mr Lowe respects the independence of the investigation and refrains from making further false public statements.”
Worth reading in full.
On Substack, Patrick O’Flynn says the rift is not just personal but reflects a growing divide between the Right of the party and the leadership on the issue of immigration and mass deportations:
The rift with Lowe is partly down to ideological differences over the totemic issue of immigration. Lowe is the uncompromising voice of the party’s Right-wing, demanding the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. He also wants many recent legal arrivals to have indefinite leave to remain withheld so they can be ushered out of the door too when their visas expire. These robust opinions have connected with huge numbers of online Right-leaning folk.
Farage, by contrast, has softened his rhetoric on immigration-related issues over recent months, saying that if Reform takes on the whole of Islam it will lose and that largescale repatriations are not achievable. Farage and his inner-circle have ironically embarked upon a ‘Vote Leave’ strategy, named after the more centrist official Brexit campaign that he bitterly opposed at the time.
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They cannot seriously think they will do other than damage Reform. Over the years our cause has been repeatedly damaged by people who think they can do a better job than whatever Nigel Farage does.
They won’t succeed.
The elites and their friends in the MSM will delight at giving Habib a platform as a way of slowing down Reform. Wake up to reality.
Give them a chance, I would vote for either of them two over Farage, who likes to keep one foot in the establishment.
Why would you vote for men who have behaved in the way that they have? Lowe could have resigned and moved on, instead he was disloyal and unprofessional, his ego and that of Habib are like express trains, they are to me the very epitome of a Conservative MP, they would eat each other alive and crawl over the bodies for power.
They will not be able to form a credible Party, neither has charisma. instead they have set out to destroy the only chance this country has of ever getting back on its feet and becoming an England that we recognise once again. Without Reform we will be back to the 2 Party Socialist lite/heavy option, which is what these two so clearly want, and frankly for them the electorate can go screw themselves.
Farage has turned his back on his supporters. He is pro muslim and pro immigration. He has been bought.
What was the story that broke?
I thought is was about an MP being reported to The Police, about something that is not clear.
Reform looks like it is run by Muslims. Yusuf, Habib. Tells me all I need to know.
Farage bottling it on deportations and Islam was the final straw for me.
That’s my vote gone.
It’s almost like Reform were only ever a PsyOp. Was this always destined to happen to Habib and Lowe, I wonder? But it’s obviously to the detriment of the party and Farage himself, so I don’t get the rationale there. Farage is getting absolutely slated left, right and centre. He surely must have foreseen this and anticipated the public reaction? Paul Weston says he’s a psychopath in another post. I’m inclined to agree. Now I see him as a master manipulator and he’s just been playing people by telling them what they want to hear for years. Somebody with integrity would not go on like this. Regarding this post, I didn’t know anything about Hope Not Hate being involved with Reform. This is news to me;
”The very worst thing about the slippery and duplicitous Nigel Farage is that better political parties and better men such as Rupert Lowe won’t get a look-in until 2034 (assuming Reform wins in 2029) by which time it may be too late to save Britain via politics and men in suits.
A double betrayal by Farage, then. Not just of Rupert but of the entire country. Farage could well go down in history as the man responsible for the final destruction of Britain. I am utterly convinced he is nothing other than Controlled Opposition.
A Muslim Chairman and a Reform membership vetting process by the odious Nick Lowles of Hope not Hate – a genuine neo-fascist and neo-Islamist organisation – hardly inspires confidence in our salvation via Reform, does it?”
https://x.com/PWestoff/status/1898670610521133168
Nailed it Mogs. Excellent post.
Farage is the problem and it is patently obvious that he is in somebody’s pocket and presumably that’s Yusuf.
The conclusion of our local Branch committee as of this evening is that Reform and muslims cannot mix, they are incompatible. It is clear as day that Farage is playing Reform members for fools.
Something else stinks to high heaven – Mike Amesbury throwing the towel in. Now why would he do that, it’s not as if he is prime employment material? As yet there has been no recall petition. Well let’s assume Reform win in the upcoming election, Labour would lose nothing really given their paltry level of support nationally but Reform can be played straight away as the 7th Cavalry. How very convenient. The plebs have their hero Farage riding to the rescue totally unaware that he is already in hoc to the muslims and as a consequence will be doing F. all about either legal or illegal immigration but the idiot vote has been vented. Rupert Lowe and his devoutly patriotic anti immigration / muslim rhetoric has been neutralised and any threat to Kneel’s Davos Deviants program is under control once again and the destruction of Britain can continue apace.
It has all been worked out in advance.
I’ve heard Lowe speaking to Dan Wootton about the incident:
https://youtu.be/BC5D9CAfrHE?si=lU-WEo0hKTOhNkfW
(just under an hour long)
There’s so much to question here, that it would appear that clarification on the points raised in the video need to be done, urgently. Though, it sounds that Lowe has set the machinery going to do this.
Farage seems to have a fragile ego. There seems to be evidence of his other poltical iterations also failing after he has led them for a while. There is only one common factor here. Time for Nigel to stand back and be the showman, and rhetoritician of the party and let a better leader, lead.
The right of British politics is getting a bit like the People’s Front of Judea versus the Judean People’s Front versus the Judean Popular People’s Front. All to the left’s amusement.
It is beginning to look a bit too scripted.
Its fairly predictable as most new parties go through these sort of ideological growing pains and splinters, I give you that. The fact is that unless you want to mount the barricades with your AK47 Hux, the only chance we have is a party of broad support built on pragmatic policies, and that some aspects of those policies are not going to fit with everyones views. We have to find a way to allow our sense of common purpose to overcome the personal disappointment we may have over specific points, rather than up sticks and split the vote further.
Its fairly predictable as most new parties go through these sort of ideological growing pains and splinters
It’s totally predictable, because that’s a strategy to get rid of new parties before they can actually challenge something. All of the few Reform MPs have to work together with an apparatus that’s stuffed with Labour supporters and would love nothing better than see Reform crumble before it ever became something. Which means if one of them clears his throat or coughs at the wrong time, a bullying complaint will be made etc.
The people in this party need to remember that – as opposition force – they ought to target government and not each other. If they can’t agree that fighting Keir Charmless is more important than whatever petty squabbles about policies they cannot implement, anyway, tend to come up, they will simply disappear again. A bunch of independent MPs who hate the other independents more than anybody else in the House of Commons are just so many mayflies.
For those who think salvation will not come through the ballot box then just choose the one you like best, but I’m heartened by what Trump is achieving in the US. For me it’s time to accept you are not going to get everything you want and back a winner, and I think that has to be Farage. He’s not perfect by any means, but the idea that the man who brought us BREXIT and highlighted the Channel crossings is controlled opposition is just plain wrong.
Look how the loyal MSM and the establishment are once again with their mates in Brussels turning against Trump, its a war now.
Why not wait for the unravelling of this current debacle?
Firstly, the accusations, at first sight at least, are pretty serious, so clarification is urgently needed, for the accused.
And secondly, it’s likely that one side or the other have blotted their copybook, and it will be easier to make a judgement when we understand what has happened.
There’s much more to understand about the challenges, nationally, than what we can deduce from current affairs articles, let alone the headlines. (And Ben is frustrated by that.)
an archos…
…I keep saying it.
I’ll keep saying it.
It’s the only way for me to be. If you keep expecting a white knight, you’ll only be sorely disappointed, time and again.
People who seek power are the last people who should get it but those who should have power will never get it because they don’t want it.
Organise your life such that you can be…
…without leader
Of course, but you come up against limits. I see nothing wrong with lending support to political leaders who can remove some of those limits and make life better for you and others. That doesn’t mean that you believe they are a “white knight” – just someone who might do a significantly better job than others at a job that appears we are stuck with for now.
The only credible anarchism is the anarchism of the Russian kind of the 19th, one that seeks to remove government by violent action. That’s probably not going to work (I certainly don’t believe it will) but simply pretending that government doesn’t exist can – at best – only lead to another Diogenes living more-or-less happily in a jar while the world moves on regardless of him.
There’s always Fabianism.
Unfortunately, there’s always Fabianism.
I don’t pretend to know what’s going on. I would dearly love to see a credible conservative force emerge, but that doesn’t mean I will support anyone “at all costs” – look where that got us with the Tories. It seems to me there are significant differences of emphasis in play here. Always tricky to know when to stand on principle and when to compromise. I hope this can be worked out but I am doubtful of a party that cannot accommodate someone like Lowe who appeared to me to have very sound ideas.
Farage is not just a problem he is the problem.
“Reform announced it had reported Mr Lowe to the police over allegations that he made threats of physical violence against Zia Yusuf, its Chairman.”
Lowe is almost twice his age, what has Yusuf been doing since December, hiding in the corner of the office!
As for Anderson, I never trusted that pr!ck after he was observing Andrew Bridgen in a meeting regarding the WHO treaty, many suspect Anderson was there to take note on him. After all, when has Anderson spoken out against the Lockdowns or Jabs — Never!
Didn’t Reform reject Bridgen’s efforts to join?
I thought that was why he joined the Reclaim Party.
Is there no limits to how low they’ll go?
”I have been informed by a reliable source that ‘senior Reform figures’ have been briefing journalists that I have dementia.
In politics, there is rough and tumble. I get that.
But this is sick.
What they are doing to me is disgusting.”
https://x.com/RupertLowe10/status/1898839071050403877
If you’re in politics, you’d better dye your hair if it’s grey because otherwise, accusations of senility/ dementia are sure to come. Originally employed against Trump in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election, this has meanwhile become a staple of underhand politics.
I don’t think there’s a limit to how low parliamentarians will go to hurt other parliamentarians but I think preciously little of the whole lot, regardless of the parties they belong to.
I smell a Tory-shaped rat here. When a new political force appears on the right side of the spectrum, it’s obviously going to be composed of opinionated people with strong personalities who much less resemble edgeless river pebbles than the parliamentary routiniers of the established parties. Hence, a good strategy is to get the new party to disintegrate by subtly encouraging infighting before it becomes really dangerous.
Reform members and especially, Reform MPs would be well-advised to remember the adage We must all hang together, because otherwise, we shall surely hang alone.
Of course all Muslims should be repatriated, but that is still outside the Overton window.
At the moment, that’s besides the point: Reform won’t repatriate anyone for as long as its a parliamentary minuscule opposition party. Public quarrels about this can and must be postponed until the question actually matters.
From a theoretical viewpoint, the questions is Can this be accomplished at all, considering that there are lots of Muslims in Britain and most of them have full voting rights?
Just for historical interest, that’s not an “adage”, but a paraphrase of this quote:
“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
— Benjamin Franklin, while signing the Declaration of Independence, on July 4, 1776.
Thanks.
Reform – aka Nigel Farage Limited – has no members. It has subscribers who have no say in how Nigel Farage Limited is run.
Not anymore. The first thing Pakistani Muslim Millionaire Yusuf did when he was made Chairman was to re-write the party regulations to allow members to vote to oust Nigel in the future and vote in Yusuf, easily done by signing up masses of his fellow Muslims as new members.
Nigel Farage gives up ownership of Reform UK – BBC News
“Party chairman Zia Yusuf said the move was “an important step in professionalising the party”.
The two directors of Reform 2025 Ltd are FARAGE and YUSUF, according to Companies House.”
**********************************************
Also, Pakistani Jewish Millionaire Ben “Sour Grapes” Habib was not unfairly “ousted”, as he incessantly complains !!!
HE FAILED TO GET ELECTED TO PARLIAMENT, because THE PEOPLE DIDN’T WANT HIM.
So Nigel was quite right to choose one of the ELECTED MPs, Richard Tice, as the new Deputy Leader.
The change has not been made and so there are STILL no members of Reform just subscribers.
Reform are nowhere near hard enough to save our people from Islamic assault and abuse. Balkanisation awaits, followed by civil war. We Anglo-Celts will win because our anger will be vast. And traitors will be arrested and tried.
More than 4 years to the election.
Calm down everyone.
Doesn’t matter anyway, because (to quote a certain huxleypiggles), our salvation shall not arrive via the ballot box. I do tend to agree with hux. So, be anarchic.
Thanks M A k.
Considering the damage Kneel has inflicted these first nine months the next 50 don’t bear thinking about.
Work needs to be done immediately to create local parties to fight council elections and to build momentum. There is now a byelection coming up that while it is a big ask to win who knows what the Labour voters might do.
I would rather wait until we get past the speculation and innuendo stage and then come to a considered opinion based on a fact or two.
I hope that Rupert Lowe has the good sense to avoid Pakistani Jewish “Sour Grapes” Habib like the Plague. What’s the point of swapping one Pakistani Millionaire like Yusuf for another like Habib? That is not what the Indigenous People of the British Isles want or need.
Rupert Lowe and Nick Candy would make the best team for setting up a new Patriots Party, welcoming in all the true patriots I have mentioned elsewhere. Let all the Muslims take over Reform, which was the plan all along.
Habib has no interest in Reform or Lowe or Britain or any new party. Just like The Nigerian Birth Tourist, he is a voracious Third World predator grasping at anyone or anything upon which he can piggyback into No. 10. He even went over to Northern Ireland a while back to try to buy support there. He is desperate to be Prime Minister of the UK rather than of his ancestral homeland of Pakistan.
The English people want Englishman Rupert Lowe to lead them, NOT yet another Pakistani.
Farage was claiming that he has never fallen out with anyone but that is because he always makes sure somebody else stabs them in the back so his prints are not on the knife. The man is a coward. This time though he has not only picked the wrong man to stab in the back he also is not aware of how modern social media works such that within minutes of trying to set up Lowe, Lowe has posted on X. We can but hope this will be the end of Farage and his plan to become leader of the Tory party.
Farage has sold us out ! The Chairman’s fist name is Muhammed not Zia !! God Help Us
Yes, it is a bit obvious Freddy.
Someone downticked me
Yes, his real name is Muhammad Ziauddin Yusuf.
“Ziauddin” is Arabic, meaning
“A Person Who Inspires And Guides The Muslims”.
Nigel has sold us down the river.
Failing Uk cannot even get there act together to form an alternative party without attacking one another. pathetic
Labour will have left the country in such a mess by 2029 so however split the right is they will still be voted in.
True, the country will probably be in a mess. However, Labour have enough of a core vote to squeak through the middle. Why do you think they reward train drivers and junior doctors and civil servants with vast no-strings pay rises? The Conservative broad church must come to some arrangement or the country will be Venezuela.
I wonder if the pair were plants all along, just there to infiltrate and then cause maximum disruption. The reality is they are both ill disciplined, disloyal and unprofessional. The Reform Party had to get on its feet quickly, within a matter of weeks, Nigel Farage is the driving force behind the Party and he is, because he has to be, a strong dominant force. Without him the Party would not be where it is today, and so Habib and Lowe deliberately set out to destroy. How Selfish and spiteful are these two men? so consumed by their own ego and desire for power that they would ruin the only Party that provides an alternative to the Uniparty and the downwards trajectory for the country which they offer.
Reform will I predict get through this, these two are frankly finished, no Party will entertain such a pair, they are done. I am disgusted with them. Lowe if he had issues should have resigned, instead he created as much damage as he could.
Who would want such a person as an MP?
That’s a point of view but completely at odds with the actualité. Farage has done a reverse ferret on immigration and believes we should cozy up to muslims. He has sold out it is as simple as that. Sadly, we are so attuned to dishonest politicians we cannot see an honest one when they are straight in front of us, Rupert Lowe being that man who by the way gives away his monthly salary to deserving causes in his constituency. Ninety per cent of MP’s spend more time completing expenses claims than they do in the H of C.
I do despair Huxley. I can see nothing short of a civil war, changing things in the Country, if you are correct and Farage is in support of the Islamification of the UK then there is no credible Party who will defend the old Britain/England.
I think we are lost.
Rupert Lowe and Nick Candy can set up a NEW PARTY.
Even better is that Elon Musk will support them as he saw through Farage almost immediately.
I disagree. I think Yousaf is the plant.
A fractured Right Wing is just what Labour wish for. —–Perhaps though we end up with a Political Party full of the Ben Habib’s, Rupert Lowe’s, Suella Braverman’s and Anthony Bridgen’s of this world and that would really be a wonderful thing. I cannot see how Reform can be getting rid of great people like Habib and Lowe and then expecting us all to vote for them
Nigel Farage can only function as a one-man band, free to change policy whenever he feels like it. If he gets the idea that deporting foreign criminals is a vote-winner, he will suddenly be in favour of it. But he won’t have any idea how to beat the human rights lawyers. Anyone with brains who works with him soon gets frustrated and starts asking for a more serious approach. Then they get shafted. Bern Habib and Rupert Lowe are the latest in a long line of victims…they seem to average about one ayear ever since 1997, when a founding member of UKIP (Alan Sked) was backstabbed.
The tragedy is that Farage is a very effective debater. When he’s up against the likes of Nick Clegg, he wipes the floor with them. If he could be persuaded that there’s more to running the country than producing the right soundbites, he could still be the Messiah.
Alan Sked refused to put up candidates for the European Parliament; he saw that as a betrayal. Farage did not agree and the policy went ahead, bringing UKIP into the spotlight and earning money for the party. Legatum and Paul Marshall have vested interests in GB News, Unherd and the Spectator. Anyone looking for conspiracy theories might like to start there. Trying to find political action untainted by all the things people on this site know about is futile. I want to support a political party that is not hell-bent on robbing me and reducing the country to penury through DEI. Reform offers the best chance of that as things stand. Reform is not in power and it is tearing itself apart over national policies that it cannot implement. Rather like people disagreeing on how to share lottery winnings when they haven’t even bought a ticket. Either support Reform or end up with 100% of nothing except fringe movements or worse – more Labour.
Don’t they realise Reform was our only hope. They have a duty to bury their differences quickly
Not going to happen by the look of things. Nigel doesn’t do apologies.
“There goes our only hope!” said the Star Wars Jedi, sadly.
“No”, said Yoda, “There is another…”
No Nigel’s preening ego comes first or he would not have destroyed UKIP and the Brexit Party in the same why he is trying to with Reform.
Lowe & Habib must want Labour to win in 2029. Anyone who thinks someone other than Farage has a snowflakes chance in hell of destroying the Blue Blairites & then defeating the Red Blairites is delusional.
This is looking increasinngly like a botched hit job. But if Lowe & Habib team up to launch a new party they are doomed
No. Rupert Lowe can set up a new party WITHOUT HABIB.