Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice addresses the suspension of MP Rupert Lowe from the party following allegations of inappropriate behaviour. Mr Lowe denies the accusations.
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00:00Well this is very sad Laura and we had been aware of Rupert's behaviour and we
00:08couldn't ignore these allegations and quite rightly the chairman Zia Yousaf
00:13said that we had to have an independent investigation led by Casey that is
00:18underway. As I say it's very sad it's unfortunate but we had to be decisive it
00:23was the responsible thing to do and imagine if we hadn't done that imagine
00:29if we'd tried in some way to brush it under the carpet that would have been
00:32completely the wrong thing to do. I'll ask you again though when did you first
00:36know you say you'd known from some time because the timing appears to
00:41many people perhaps people watching this it appears rather curious because on
00:45Thursday Mr. Lowe was very critical of Nigel Farage saying that reform was
00:49still a protest party run by someone like the Messiah and the very next day
00:55miraculously these allegations of bad behaviour which Mr. Lowe denies were
01:00suddenly out in the public domain and you called the cops. Well at the end of
01:05the day the chairman Zia Yousaf he had to make these difficult decisions and I
01:10was aware of that on on Friday where just before it was announced because
01:15that's the right way to deal with these things but in terms of the
01:20anxieties that we had had over Rupert's behaviour regrettably that had been
01:26going on for some time just before the Christmas parliamentary break as had
01:32previously been reported there was a unfortunate regrettable incident in the
01:37House of Commons itself so there was a there was an unfortunate trend here and
01:43we had these bullying allegations and they have to be dealt with I understand
01:48there's a parliamentary investigation and you know as a party there's a duty
01:53of care to people who are either directly or indirectly employed and it's
01:56quite proper and right that that's dealt with in the responsible way.