Former Reform MP Rupert Lowe has been cleared after a brief investigation by Parliament’s standards commissioner.
The commissioner announced the investigation on Friday morning but has now put out a statement saying the complaint has not been upheld.
The BBC reported that the investigation was for allegedly failing to register money raised in donations via a crowdfunder for Lowe’s independent “Rape Gang Inquiry”.
Lowe insisted that he had only received the donations on 23 June, giving him until 21 July to register them, and he had “demonstrated to the commissioner” all rules have been followed.
In a statement, standards commissioner David Greenberg said Lowe had provided evidence that the 28-day window for registering the donations had not passed “and no breach of the Rules has occurred”.
Reacting to the commissioner’s announcement on X, Lowe said: “This complaint was a malicious attempt to shut me down and undermine our inquiry.”
He added: “I was informed on Thursday morning that this investigation was happening, and I immediately provided undeniable proof that all was done within the rules – the money arrived in the Rape Gang Inquiry account on June 23rd and I have 28 days from that date to register. It is all in hand, and being done entirely correctly.
“This irrefutable evidence was provided to the parliamentary authorities, I met them yesterday to discuss, yet they still decided to publish.”
He said he would be making a formal complaint to the BBC about the way it had reported the story.
The BBC said it would consider any complaints in the usual way.
More than £600,000 has been donated to a crowdfunder started by Lowe in March to support a national inquiry into gang-based sexual exploitation across the UK.
Lowe started the project before the PM announced a government-backed national inquiry into grooming gangs last month. He has since said his investigation will continue regardless.
Under parliamentary rules, MPs must declare any donation from a single source over £1,500 – or over £300 in earnings or gifts.
Lowe’s crowdfunder includes a statement that donors giving above the parliamentary limit will have their names published in the Commons register.
Most of the £600,000 came in small sums – but records show over a dozen donations exceeded £1,500, which have yet to appear in Lowe’s register of financial interests.
The complainant emailed Mr Greenberg on 23 June to “highlight that Mr Lowe has failed to register his crowdfunder”.
In an email to Lowe on 10 July, Mr Greenberg told the Great Yarmouth MP he was opening a formal inquiry into whether he had “failed to register individual donations made to the Crowdfunder for the “Rape Gang Inquiry” as required by the rules”.
The investigation was into whether the MP had broken Rule 5 of the Commons code of conduct.
In a resolution letter, sent on 11 July, Mr Greenberg says: “I concluded that the evidence submitted did not demonstrate on the balance of probabilities that a breach of the rules had occurred.”
In a statement the Rape Gang Inquiry said: “The first donations were drawn from our Crowdfunder and arrived in the Rape Gang Inquiry bank account on June 23rd – Rupert had been funding the inquiry until then.
“All appropriate checks have been made for Rupert’s parliamentary declaration. He has 28 days from the money arriving in the account, which was on June 23rd, until the submission has to be complete – although this has almost entirely been finished already.
“Once the inquiry is complete, spending will be published in the interests of full transparency.”
Lowe was elected as a Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth in 2024 but was suspended by the party in March, amid claims of threats towards the party’s chairman, Zia Yusuf.
In May, the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to press charges over threats he was alleged to have made. Lowe claimed in a BBC Newsnight interview that he had been the victim of a “political assassination attempt”.
Not long after his suspension from Reform, Lowe set up his crowdfunder – accusing ministers of failing victims and saying: “Our gutless political class is too cowardly to even start to process what has truly happened.”
Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry has set up a board, including Conservative MP Esther McVey.
According to the inquiries social media page, it has sent “hundreds and hundreds of FOI requests to every local council, police force, NHS trust and more in order to uncover vital information relating to the rape gangs”.
Lowe has promised to stream hearings online and insisted his private investigation will continue to push for accountability.