A furious row has broken out over the publishing of a report that found ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe harassed two women who worked in his office.
The KC put in charge of investigating Mr Lowe has accused Nigel Farage and Reform of “reneging” over the agreement about when to publish her report into the Great Yarmouth MP.
Jacqueline Perry, who is also Donald Trump’s lawyer, sent an email to Mr Lowe’s lawyer apologising for the way in which her report had been published early on Tuesday.
She said: “I made it quite clear to the party that I had indicated a deadline to you of Wednesday the 26th, and the report had been released entirely without my input in this at all. In fact, I was informed of this and surprised and disconcerted that the gun had been jumped.”
She noted: “I cannot but agree with you that it seems to be reneging on what I had made clear to you and I had emphasised to the party (who by the way had seen the email I had sent to you) that the report could not be released before the 26th, in case Mr Lowe, through yourself, was going to come back to me.”
She added: “As a practitioner, it is not my style at all to ever renege upon agreements, and I hope that you can accept that a) this was not my doing and b) I was and remained independent throughout.”
Ms Perry, however, did say that her report – which found there was “credible” evidence of bullying or harassment by Mr Lowe and his team against two female employees – was based on facts.
Mr Lowe, who has described the investigation into him as a “witch hunt” to discredit him, used the email to hit out at the way Reform has handled the investigation.
He was already furious that members of his staff had been publicly identified by a report, which he claims was meant to be internal.
The 67-year-old MP, who has also been reported to the police for allegedly threatening Reform chair Zia Yusuf, told The Independent: “They released it without her permission and named and shamed my staff. It’s outrageous.”
He said: “The report was supposed to be internal, it’s labelled as ‘informal and private’.”
But Reform has insisted that it has handled the case properly.
A spokesperson said Mr Lowe had already declared that he had no intention of engaging with Ms Perry or the investigation, so the deadline had no purpose.
They also shared an email Ms Perry had sent to the party ahead of publication where she said: “I did say in my last email to Jason Newall [Mr Lowe’s lawyer] that I would wait until Wednesday (26 March) but in view of RL’s public pronouncements on Thursday (20 March) I leave this decision to the party.”
A Reform spokesperson said: “Rupert Lowe has had lawyers be his vehicle to communicate with the KC, and they emailed her that they would not be responding by the deadline.
He added: “The report points out many instances where the KC has seen demonstrable proof that Rupert has lied on social media. The KC has also had to issue a public statement rebuking him for claiming there was ‘no credible evidence’ against him.”
