Hello and welcome to the Spike Podcast. I'm Fraser Myers with me this week and

Shio as ever we've got Spiked editor Tom Slater. Hello. And delighted to have

joining us down the line, spiked columnist Rakeeb Esan. Hello. So loads to talk

about today. We'll be discussing the meltdown in reform, the cancellation of Romanian

democracy and finally farewell to Nicholas Sturgeon.

So the Reform Party is in crisis.

Not long ago, we were talking about it being at the top of the polls,

you know, doing astonishingly well.

But Rupert Lowe, one of the MPs and Nigel Farage,

have had this spectacular falling out.

Tom, I mean, there's a lot more to this story.

There's even, you know, allegations of criminal behaviour potentially.

Do you want to sort of spell out how we got here?

No, absolutely. It's incredible how much has happened in the course of a week.

But it essentially seemed to have begun with this Casey-led investigation into alleged

bullying within Rupert Lowe's constituency and parliamentary office, all claims that have been

made against him. He strenuously denies.

On top of that, we then saw this explosive interview in the mail,

in which Rupert Lowe referred to Nigel Farage,

as someone who had messianic qualities,

but at the same time that reform needed to transition from being a protest party,

he kind of left it as an open question,

...