Susan Evans, Douglas Carswell, Patrick O’Flynn, Neil Hamilton, Godfrey Bloom, Ben Habib, Rupert Lowe. These are just of the more prominent characters Nigel Farage has spectacularly fallen out with during his time at the frontline of British politics. However the latter, Mr Lowe, proves the most explosive yet. None of the others had amassed such a cult following with Mr Farage’s parties as the MP for Great Yarmouth had. And none threatened such instability after being ousted by the party’s ‘messianic’ leader.

The party’s online supporters seem completely split following the chasm last week, when Mr Lowe was unceremoniously expelled from the party, placed under internal investigation, and reported to the police. For the first time, Reform’s remaining four MPs appear unable to even tweet without being condemned by the online right. Mr Lowe, for his part, has spent the weekend insisting his innocence, with claims and counterclaims bounding about. The Met has confirmed they are investigating.

But will his defenestration prove Reform’s undoing? Or is Nigel Farage still one of the best political tacticians Britain has? Below we take a look back at how Friday’s events finally came to a head.

How did their paths first meet?

Both Rupert Lowe and Nigel Farage have been involved in the Eurosceptic movement for decades.

Both had similar starts in life, beginning at elite public schools before moving into a career in the city.

While Nigel Farage became a founding member of UKIP in 1993 – being elected to the European Parliament in 1999 – Mr Lowe joined the Referendum Party and stood as its candidate for the Cotswolds in 1997.

They later converged in 2019 when Mr Lowe joined the Brexit Party, the precursor to Reform, and won a seat alongside Mr Farage in the European Parliament.

Following Brexit, Mr Lowe left politics for a time, before returning in March 2023 under Richard Tice’s leadership, and stood in the 2024 Kingswood by-election when he achieved the party’s best-ever by-election result.

Despite Mr Farage’s return to leading Reform at the 2024 general election, Mr Lowe cut a notably distance path when campaigning in Great Yarmouth. Both were elected to Parliament last July.

Why did tensions emerge?

From the moment the pair entered the Commons last year, tensions quickly emerged and became an open secret in Westminster.

Former Farage spin doctor Gawain Towler openly admitted that the due did not “see eye to eye on everything”, with Mr Farage understood to be increasingly irritated with Mr Lowe’s bullish demands for mass deportations of illegal migrants.

Loyalists to the leader accused him of refusing to be a team player.

In January, Elon Musk drove a wedge between the pair after the US billionaire called on Nigel Farage to be replaced as Reform UK leader, suggesting Mr Lowe as his successor.

This came as a humiliating blow to Mr Farage, who had been courting a potentially huge donation from the X and Tesla owner.

For Mr Lowe’s part, he held resentment towards his party leader after Mr Farage quit politics in 2021 to make millions as a TV personality while Richard Tice and others kept the show on the road, only for Mr Farage to make a last-minute comeback during the general election.

The party appeared to be actively targeting their Yarmouth MP at a press conference unveiling their energy policy.

Mr Tice said Reform would impose a windfall tax on battery energy storage systems.

As well as his job as an MP, Mr Lowe is the director of a firm called Lowe & Oliver, a firm which works with contractors installing solar panels and battery energy storage systems.

One of its customers include Mr Lowe’s 500-acre Cotswold farm.

Responding to claims he had been targeted by the party’s policy, Mr Lowe told the Guardian he is proud of his business interests and called on MPs to have more “life experience”.

Why did things explode last week?

Last week, Mr Lowe gave an interview to the Daily Mail in which he refused to say whether he would be a Reform MP come the election, and suggesting Mr Farage may not make a good Prime Minister.

In an ominous comment about the party’s leadership, Mr Lowe said it’s “too early to know” if Mr Farage will make a good Prime Minister. He said: “It’s too early to know whether Nigel will deliver the goods… He can only deliver if he surrounds himself with the right people.”

“Nigel is a fiercely independent individual and is extremely good at what we have done so far. He has got messianic qualities. Will those messianic qualities distil into sage leadership? I don’t know.”

“We have to change from being a protest party led by the Messiah into being a properly structured party with a frontbench, which we don’t have. We have to start behaving as if we are leading and not merely protesting.

“Nigel is a messianic figure who is at the core of everything but he has to learn to delegate, as not everything can go through one person.”

In response, Mr Farage slapped Mr Lowe down and said he was “utterly, completely wrong.” Pressed on whether Lowe would be an MP at the next election, Farage said: “I hope so, he seems to be taking a tone that suggests he won’t accept us.”

Rupert Lowe’s expulsion and claims against him

A day later, Reform published a bombshell statement accusing Mr Lowe of bullying and of making threats against the party’s chairman, Zia Yusuf.

Mr Yusuf added that the threats against him had been reported to the police, and the party said they had removed the whip from Mr Lowe, meaning he will sit as an independent MP.

However Mr Lowe has spent the last three days protesting his innocence and saying claims of physical threats are “outrageous and entirely untrue”.

Both parties are now lawyered up and ready for war.

Mr Lowe fumed: “It is no surprise that this vexatious statement has been issued the day after my reasonable and constructive questions of Nigel and the Reform structure.”

“If they want to kick me out over false claims, they’ll have to finally present some credible evidence against me. There is none, as the KC has just told me. Again.

“A complete inability to accept even the most mild constructive criticism without such a malicious reaction is not effective leadership.

“This is our party as much as it is Nigel’s.”

Last night, a senior lawyer hired by Reform to investigate the allegations denied making comments Mr Lowe attributed to her.

Questions remain for Reform as to why the Met Police says the threats against Mr Yusuf were supposedly made in December, but weren’t reported to the police until last Thursday after Mr Lowe’s Mail interview hit headlines.