Kemi Badenoch has been challenged to urgently rule out the defection of former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe to the Conservative Party.
The Liberal Democrats have seized on a report that Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary and onetime Tory leadership candidate, held a meeting with Lowe at a private members club in Mayfair last week.
Following the meeting, Lowe, who now sits as an independent, told PoliticsHome he is “open” to joining the Conservatives.
Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, has warned that Lowe joining the Conservatives would see the party move “even further to the extremes.”
The Lib Dems have also interpreted Jenrick’s role as a challenge to Badenoch’s authority, and reiterated their call for the Tory leader to sack her erstwhile rival.
“This surely also has to be the last straw for Robert Jenrick’s underhand leadership campaign”, Cooper said. “Badenoch needs to sack him or accept that she is too weak to control her own front bench.”
Sources close to Jenrick told PoliticsHome that the shadow justice secretary was not trying to negotiate a defection.
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Lowe was first elected as the Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth in the 2024 general election but was suspended from the party and reported to police in March 2025 after facing allegations of making threats.
His suspension also came after he issued a strongly worded critique of Farage’s leadership in an interview with the Daily Mail. Lowe, who was touted as a replacement Reform leader by Elon Musk in January, said his then-party needed a “proper plan”, more policy and suggested he could leave unless it shifted away from Farage’s “messianic” leadership.
Earlier this month, the Crown Prosecution Service said that after considering several witness statements, they had concluded that there is “insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction”.
In a lengthy statement following the CPS decision, Lowe said he was referred to the police “all because I dared to raise constructive criticisms of [Reform leader] Nigel Farage, stood firm on deporting illegal migrants, and pushed for Reform to be run democratically — not as a vehicle to stroke one man’s ego”.
Lowe said Reform responded “with a brutal smear campaign” and accused figures in the party of briefing journalists he had dementia.
He added: “[Reform] are not fit to lead. They are not fit to be MPs.”
The MP for Great Yarmouth also reiterated his belief that Farage “must never be prime minister”, calling him a “coward and a viper.”
Lowe went on to suggest he would soon mount a national challenge to Reform, promising an “alternative” to the party’s “rotten leadership.”
Alex Burghart, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and a prominent figure in Badenoch’s inner circle, recently commented that the Tory leader would “closely and carefully” consider whether to accept any application from Lowe to join the party.
Speaking to GB News earlier this month, Burghart said: “I greatly respect Rupert Lowe and he was given a very, very hard time by Reform.
“We consider everyone’s application to the Conservative Party but as far as I’m aware I don’t know if Rupert would want to join.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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