Rupert Lowe

Rupert James Graham Lowe (born 31 October 1957) is a British Reform UK politician and businessman, who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Great Yarmouth since 2024. He has served as Reform UK's Business and Agriculture spokesman since 2023. He previously served as a Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands from 2019 to 2020.

Lowe was chairman of Southampton Football Club from 1996 to 2006 and then again from 2008 to 2009, when the company was placed into administration.

Early life and career
Lowe was born on 31 October 1957 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. He was educated at Radley College, an all-boys independent boarding school, and the University of Reading. He then worked in the City of London for companies such as Morgan Grenfell, Deutsche Bank and Barings Bank where he worked with rogue trader Nick Leeson. He was also a board member of the London International Financial Futures Exchange. He founded Secure Retirements, a quoted care home provider, with Andrew Cowen, later the Southampton F.C. Vice-Chairman.

Southampton Football Club
In the mid-1990s, the Saints board were looking to float the club on the London Stock Exchange, a long and costly procedure. Therefore, they attempted a reverse takeover as a way to reduce costs. They needed to find a company that had already floated and take it over while effectively being taken over themselves. Lowe's Secure Retirements, which ran nursing homes, was a perfect candidate. The resultant group was renamed Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC.

After the deal was completed, Lowe became chairman of the football club. This was despite him being an avid rugby union watcher and hockey player, who had only seen his first professional football game six months previously.

Southampton fans were initially undecided about Lowe. He had vast business expertise, a vital trait for any chairman of a football club, but he also knew hardly anything about the game. In contrast, clubs including Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers had recently been taken over by lifelong fans who had made their wealth in various industries before switching their investments to football.

In the summer of 1997, manager Graeme Souness left after just one season in charge, as did director of football and former manager Lawrie McMenemy. Both men cited 'difficulties' with the new owners. This came as a huge shock to many fans and to the local press, who regarded McMenemy as 'Mr. Southampton'; he had previous managed the club from 1973 to 1985, guiding it to FA Cup glory in 1976 and finishing as high as second in the league in 1984.

Lowe, however, did much to move the club forward. He guided the club from their old stadium into the 32,000-seater St Mary's Stadium, which opened in 2001, and the club continued to follow a long-standing policy of selling players to clubs for high prices. Dean Richards, who was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for £8 million, and Kevin Davies, who was sold to Blackburn Rovers for £7 million, are good examples. Davies was subsequently bought back by Southampton for a much smaller fee. James Beattie joined the club for £1 million from Blackburn Rovers, enjoyed great form at Southampton, and later joined Everton for £6 million.

During his ownership of the club, the Saints managed to maintain their Premier League status into the 21st century, despite having been in regular relegation battles since the early 1990s and rarely finishing in the top half of the table.

His timing of managerial decisions were somewhat alarming and inconsistent, however, as there were eight managers during his tenure, a very high turnover rate. Dave Jones was forced out in January 2000 when faced with a criminal investigation, even though Jones was later exonerated of all charges. Jones was succeeded by Glenn Hoddle, who left just over a year later to join Tottenham Hotspur, amid criticism from Southampton fans that he had turned his back on the club. Lowe then appointed a talented coach, Stuart Gray, but Gray was swiftly replaced by Gordon Strachan after a disastrous start to the 2001–02 season. Strachan guided the Saints to a secure 11th-place finish.

In 2003, Saints went on to reach the FA Cup Final and qualified for the UEFA Cup for the first time in nearly 20 years, also finishing eighth in the league – their highest finish for well over a decade. In the following season they were lying fourth in the league at Christmas, but it soon emerged that Gordon Strachan was refusing to extend his contract citing "personal reasons". Strachan resigned in March 2004, and Lowe and the board took the decision to replace him with Paul Sturrock before the end of the season. Sturrock himself left the club by "mutual consent" within six months of being appointed, despite achieving good results during his time in charge. It is understood that Lowe attempted to interfere in team selection after consulting Rugby Union coach Sir Clive Woodward, who was being approached about a possible role at the club at the time.

Lowe appointed Harry Redknapp manager of Southampton in December 2004. Redknapp had quit as manager of Southampton's south coast rivals Portsmouth two weeks previously. Southampton were relegated in 2005 and Lowe appointed Clive Woodward, the former head coach of the England national rugby union team as the Director of Football of Southampton in July 2005. Redknapp resigned as manager in December 2005 and subsequently rejoined Portsmouth.

Lowe won a libel case against The Times in 2005 regarding a column by the sportswriter Martin Samuel which alleged that Lowe had treated Jones "shabbily" following Jones's suspension as manager of Southampton after he was accused of child abuse charges on which he was subsequently acquitted. Lowe was awarded £250,000 which he pledged to donate to charity.

On 30 June 2006, Lowe resigned under huge pressure from club supporters, including the newly formed Saints Trust, following the club's failure to win promotion back to the Premiership. Michael Wilde, a new investor in Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC, led a new team of directors in taking over the club. The Saints were beaten in the 2006–07 Championship playoffs, and failed to mount a promotion challenge the following season.

In July 2008, Lowe returned as Southampton Leisure Holdings plc chairman. At an AGM on 23 December 2008, Lowe received several calls to resign from former chairman Leon Crouch and from fans and shareholders at the meeting. Also, thirty silver coins were thrown in the direction of Lowe by fan Richard Chorley, who was thrown out of the meeting. After Lowe's return, protests took place against his role at the club.

On 2 April 2009, Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC was put into administration, resulting in Lowe's resignation from the board. The club was relegated to League One shortly afterwards, but under its new owners reached the Premier League just three years afterwards.

Garforth Town
In December 2012, Lowe purchased Garforth Town of the Northern Premier League, along with the franchise operation of Socatots & Brazilian Soccer Schools linking up again with Simon Clifford, who had been employed as a Southampton coach in 2005.

Football Association
Lowe has served as a member of the executive board of The Football Association as a Premier League representative and as an FA Councillor and on the FA Cup committee.

Political career
Lowe stood for election as the Referendum Party candidate for Cotswold in the 1997 general election. He also took an active role in the successful Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 Brexit referendum. He won a seat for the Brexit Party in the West Midlands constituency in the 2019 European Parliament elections. He had planned to be the Brexit Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Dudley North constituency of the UK Parliament. but withdrew. In 2020, he denied the scientific consensus on man-made climate change in the European Parliament, calling it a "cult" which "marches on with no definitive evidence to support or deny the factual accuracy of [climate scientists'] assertions".

In March 2023, Lowe returned to politics as Reform UK's Business and Agriculture Spokesman. He contested the 2024 Kingswood by-election, finishing in third place, surpassing 10% and achieving Reform's best-ever by-election result. This was bettered later the same day by Ben Habib's 13% of the vote in the Wellingborough by-election.

In the July 2024 general election, he stood for the Great Yarmouth constituency and won, gaining 35.3% of the vote. After his election, he compiled a list of schools in his constituency where he claimed that teachers had a bias against Reform UK during the election campaign, saying he would be meeting with headteachers to discuss the allegations. He also pledged to donate his MP salary to a different local charity or worthy cause each month.

Lowe regards Oliver Cromwell as his hero as he was "a great guy, a great leader – he stood up for what he believed in".

Later career
In February 2018, Lowe was one of several people who received undisclosed damages payouts from Mirror Group Newspapers as part of the phone hacking scandal.

Lowe was appointed a Director of Rutherford Health plc in 2018 and Digme Fitness in 2017.

Lowe owns Ravenshall Farm in Withington, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. The operations of racehorse trainer Fergal O'Brien are based at the farm.