Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe became embroiled in a furious war of words on social media as the Reform UK civil war deepened. The Reform leader hit out at the Great Yarmouth MP’s “monstrous” claim that the party tried to stop him speaking out on grooming gangs.

It comes after Mr Lowe lost the whip last week amid allegations over his conduct, which he denies. The Clacton MP wrote on X: “I have fought against the rape gangs for over a decade. For Rupert Lowe to say that I tried to prevent him talking about it is monstrous.”

Mr Farage went on: “He told Lee Anderson he would ‘slit the throat of the Reform party’.

“Lowe is out to cause damage and should be ignored by our supporters.”

But Mr Lowe accused Mr Farage of being “desperate” in a reply to his tweet.

He added: “I said that Reform leadership was slitting its own throat by launching this horrific smear campaign against me, with zero credible evidence.

“I raised questions of Reform policy, communication and structure. The day after, you kicked me out. That’s your real motive.”

The row came after Mr Farage said there was no way back to Reform for Mr Lowe after his claim about grooming gangs.

Splits in the right-wing party came to a head on Friday when Reform said Mr Lowe had been reported to the police over alleged “threats of physical violence” to chairman Zia Yusuf.

It also claimed that two women working in the MP’s offices had made complaints about “workplace bullying” and “derogatory remarks”.

Mr Lowe has strenuously denied the claims, saying the allegations of bullying do not relate to him and were made by staff who themselves faced disciplinary action.

He also questioned the timing of the police report after Scotland Yard confirmed it was assessing a complaint the force received on Thursday about an alleged incident last December.

Tensions became apparent a day earlier when Mr Lowe questioned Mr Farage’s leadership in an outspoken interview.