Rupert Lowe to be given Tory spot on influential parliamentary committee

The Conservatives are to give former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe one of their spots on an influential parliamentary committee.

The MP for Great Yarmouth will get a Tory seat on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) because he shares the party’s values of “cutting waste”, the Conservatives said.

Mr Lowe was elected as a Reform UK MP but had the whip suspended in March during a row with the party, and has since been sitting as an Independent.

A Conservative party spokesperson said: “As Kemi Badenoch demonstrated when she made the offer to sit down with Keir Starmer to help get proper welfare savings through Parliament, the Conservatives will work cross-party if it is in the national interest.

“We want the Public Accounts Committee to do its job of ensuring taxpayers get better value for money from the state, as well as identifying areas of Government waste.”

Speaking of Mr Lowe directly, the spokesperson added: “Having someone who has run a business and shares our values on cutting waste on this committee will help meet that goal.”

Mr Lowe is not joining the Conservative Party as a result of the move, the PA news agency understands.

He told PA: “It’s an honour to be selected to serve the British people through sitting on the Public Accounts Committee – I have committed a huge amount of time and energy to working on a cross-party basis in Parliament to deliver on a number of important campaigns.

“This is a continuation of that, and I look forward to using my extensive experience in business to ensure that British taxpayers are receiving good value for money on how their taxes are being spent.”

This is not the first time the Tories have offered MPs of different political affiliations one of their spots on a parliamentary committee.

Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield, who resigned from the Labour Party last year after criticising Sir Keir Starmer, holds one of the Conservatives’ places on the Women and Equalities Committee.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson (East Antrim), meanwhile, occupies one of their spots on the Environmental Audit Committee.

But the decision to give Mr Lowe a Tory seat on the PAC comes as individual Conservative Party politicians appear to be striking up closer ties with him.

Conservative former minister Sir Gavin Williamson has joined the advisory board of Restore Britain, the “political movement” Mr Lowe set up after his exit from Reform.

Susan Hall, a Tory member of the London Assembly and the party’s candidate for the capital’s mayor at the last election, has also joined the Restore Britain board.

Bromley and Biggin Hill MP Peter Fortune is understood to be standing down as a Tory member of PAC so Mr Lowe can take his place.

A Labour source said: “The Tories crashed the economy and sent people’s mortgages rocketing. So it’s no surprise they would hand-pick someone for this position who also has no fiscal credibility.”

The source pointed to Mr Lowe’s role alongside former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty as a director of Digme Fitness, a gym chain that went bust.

“If the Tories had learned anything, they would finally publish the detail behind their unfunded spending pledges, which run to the tune of billions. But they won’t, because they haven’t changed and they can’t be trusted,” they added.