From the archives: Rupert Lowe’s first fight for freedom

These days, it’s rare to find an MP who is consistent in his politics. So Mr S was delighted to discover on a trip to the archives that there is an exception to this usual rule. Rupert Lowe has served as the no-nonsense Honourable Member for Great Yarmouth since July 2024. Prior to his election as a Reform MP last year, Lowe was an MEP for the brief-lived Brexit party in 2019, which topped the European elections and toppled Theresa May.

But, two decades before that, Farage and Lowe were candidates for rival Eurosceptic parties at the 1997 election: the former for Ukip, the latter for Jimmy Goldsmith’s Referendum party. Steerpike has done some digging and found that some old leaflets of Lowe exist in the Special Collections of Bristol University. They show the Old Radleian has barely changed his politics in 28 years, with images of the-then-39 year old appearing alongside a plea for patriotism and democracy.