Ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe sets up party

A former Reform UK MP - who is now serving as an independent - has set up a new political party.

Rupert Lowe, who represents Great Yarmouth, has launched Great Yarmouth First which he says will "solely" promote the interests of his constituency.

The new party is yet to register with the Electoral Commission and Lowe said the group needed to establish itself first.

According to Lowe, 500 residents had already joined and he had funded a year's membership fees for these first 500 people.

Lowe said his party would be "completely focused on doing what is right for Great Yarmouth, not what is right for Norwich or London".

Speaking to the BBC, he claimed a new party was needed because national government had let people down and the "rot extends to local government as well".

"We think it's going to set a new trend in local government where local people actually take an interest in how they're governed."

Lowe, who will continue to serve as an independent in Parliament, said he hoped the area-specific local party idea would be adopted elsewhere in the country.

"This is grassroots Britain taking back control of its own destiny," Lowe claimed.

Lowe, a businessman and farmer who used to be chairman of Southampton FC, said he planned to field candidates in the next local elections in May.

He did not say what specifically the party would prioritise, but said he believed the fishing, and oil and gas sectors had been let down in Great Yarmouth with the investments in renewable energy.

Conservative Carl Smith, leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, denied the main parties had let down the town.

He pointed to about £300m that had been invested into the area since 2019, including the Herring Bridge crossing which opened in February 2024.

"Rupert Lowe seems to think that people feel the main parties are letting them down. Well I certainly don't feel that," said Smith.

Smith highlighted the new marina centre, the regeneration of the Winter Gardens and the conversion of the Palmers building into a library and university campus.

Lowe set up his own political movement, Restore Britain, earlier this year.

He had been suspended by Reform UK in March, after allegations he made threats of physical violence against then party chairman Zia Yusuf.

The Crown Prosecution Service later said there was insufficient evidence for a "realistic prospect of conviction".

Lowe likes to fight against the establishment and often speaks out against the Westminster parties, the banks and the BBC - as political editor Andrew Sinclair explains.

"Now he is focusing on local government which he believes is too self-serving and not very in touch with the people they are supposed to represent," said Sinclair.

"With limited elections in Great Yarmouth next year, the best his party can hope for is a small grouping at Norfolk County Council, but Mr Lowe believes that would send a powerful signal.

"And he is setting up this party at a time when voters appear to be moving away from supporting the main parties in local elections in favour of smaller ones or independent groupings."

Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana - both sitting as independents - recently founded Your Party.

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