hit back at as Reform UK descended into civil war today.
He insisted Reform is not a “protest party” and swiped that Mr Lowe would not have had a “cat’s chance in hell” of becoming an MP without him.
Mr Farage’s comments come after the Great Yarmouth MP claimed Reform needs to “change from being a protest party led by the Messiah into being a properly structured party with a frontbench”.
But the Reform leader told TalkTV: “We are not a protest party in any way at all. That is utterly wrong, utterly, completely wrong.
“We are an entirely positive party. Come to any Reform event and the positivity, the energy…
“If I’ve got a following out there, that’s a good thing. If I hadn’t, we wouldn’t have won any seats in Parliament at all on July 4 last year.”
Don’t miss…
Reform leader Nigel Farage and MP Rupert Lowe (Image: GETTY)
Asked if this included Mr Lowe’s constituency, Mr Farage added: “There wouldn’t have been a cat’s chance in hell, come on, be honest about it.”
The Clacton MP went on: “We’re not a protest party and he’s on the front bench, so what’s he talking about?
“With only five people you can’t really have a shadow cabinet, can you?
“We’ve got a lot of development to do but we’re absolutely not a protest party.
“If you saw the level of development we’ve undergone in the last eight months. We’ve created a constitution for the party, we’ve changed the share ownership and structure of the party, we’ve set up 400 branches around the country.”
Asked why Mr Lowe had gone public with his remarks, Mr Farage said: “Perhaps he wants to be prime minister most people in politics do.
“Half the House of Commons think they should be prime minister. His comments are wrong, we are making gigantic strides.”
Pressed on if he had told Mr Lowe to “wind his neck in”, the Reform leader added: “There’s no point telling him what to do or what not to do. The fact is we are making huge strides.”
The row erupted after Mr Lowe, who has been touted by US tech billionaire as a possible successor, questioned Mr Farage’s leadership in an interview with the Daily Mail.
He said he would not be “by Nigel’s side at the next election” unless the insurgent party’s governance was overhauled.
He said: “We have to change from being a protest party led by the Messiah into being a properly structured party with a front bench, which we don’t have.
“We have to start behaving as if we are leading and not merely protesting.
“Nigel is a messianic figure who is at the core of everything but he has to learn to delegate, as not everything can go through one person.”