Parliament’s standards watchdog has launched an investigation into Rupert Lowe, the independent MP for Great Yarmouth, following reports that he failed to declare hundreds of thousands of pounds raised for his self-initiated “Rape Gang Inquiry”. The crowdfunder, launched in March, aimed to support a national investigation into the sexual abuse and grooming of children by organised gangs across the UK. Mr Lowe began his inquiry before Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced the Government’s own plans for a formal inquiry in June.
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The fundraiser has reportedly garnered over £600,000. According to the BBC, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards opened the inquiry on 10 July due to an alleged failure to register the donations in Mr Lowe’s official register of interests. Under parliamentary rules, MPs must declare donations exceeding £1,500 within 28 days of receipt. A post from the Rape Gang Inquiry’s official X (formerly Twitter) account claimed that the funds only began to be drawn on 23 June and that Mr Lowe had personally covered all prior expenses.
The post also stated that “all appropriate checks have been made” for compliance and that the registration process was already “almost entirely complete”. It pledged that full spending details would be published once the inquiry concludes, “in the interests of full transparency”. A later post suggested that the investigation stemmed from “malicious and false complaints”, while Mr Lowe himself remains publicly committed to hosting survivors of abuse at Westminster next week. He intends to provide MPs with the opportunity to meet survivors and “understand what actually happened – and what is still happening”.
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Mr Lowe was previously elected as a Reform UK MP but was suspended from the party in March following accusations that he threatened then-party chairman Zia Yusuf. He strongly denied the allegations, and the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed no criminal charges would be pursued. Since his suspension, Mr Lowe has criticised former colleagues, accusing them of attempting to weaponise the police against him and referring to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as a “coward and a viper”. His independent inquiry gained traction shortly after, amid mounting political pressure for action on grooming gang abuse.
