Parliament’s standards watchdog has opened an investigation into Rupert Lowe, the former Reform MP, reportedly over a failure to declare the hundreds of thousands of pounds donated to his “Rape Gang Inquiry”. The independent MP for Great Yarmouth launched a crowdfunder in March to support a national inquiry into the scandal of children being groomed and abused by gangs across the UK.

Mr Lowe, now an independent MP, set up his inquiry before Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced there would be a new Government-backed inquiry in June. The fundraiser has so far raised more than £600,000, and the BBC reported that the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has launched the investigation because Mr Lowe is yet to declare the money on his register of interests.

The watchdog’s web page says the investigation was opened on July 10 because of a “failure to register interests”, though the commissioner would not publicly comment on the reason.

MPs are required to update their register of interests within 28 days once they receive a donation from a single source of more than £1,500, or more than £300 in gifts or earnings.

In a post on its X social media account, the Rape Gang Inquiry suggested Mr Lowe had not begun making use of the money until the end of June.

It 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.”

It later suggested in a separate post that the investigation was the result of “malicious and false complaints”.

Mr Lowe plans to welcome a group of women who experienced abuse at the hands of grooming gangs, to Westminster next week.

“Every MP will be invited to come and speak individually with survivors. Hear their stories, understand what actually happened – and what is still happening,” the MP said on X.

Mr Lowe was elected as a Reform UK MP, but was suspended by the party in March amid claims he had threatened then-party chairman Zia Yusuf.

He denied the allegations, and the Crown Prosecution Service said no criminal charges would be brought against him in relation to alleged threats towards Mr Yusuf.

Mr Lowe has since accused his ex-colleagues of engaging in a “sinister” attempt to use the police to silence him, and called Reform’s leader Nigel Farage a “coward and a viper”.

Not long after he was suspended, Mr Lowe launched his private investigation into the grooming gang scandal, amid pressure from the Government’s opponents for a new inquiry.