Rupert Lowe says he will now be donating £1,000 to charity after his mistake
An MP has admitted he mistakenly thought a charity rowing crew could have been “illegal migrants”.
Independent MP Rupert Lowe shared a picture on X on Thursday, showing a boat close to wind turbines off the Norfolk coast, and wrote: “Dinghies coming into Great Yarmouth, RIGHT NOW”.
HM Coastguard contacted the crew to confirm their identities and it was revealed the boat contained a team of charity rowers attempting to travel from Land’s End, Cornwall, to John O’Groats, Caithness.
In a later post, Lowe said: “As a well done to the crew, I’ll donate £1,000 to their charity – raising money for MND (motor neurone disease).”
The charity rowers described their confusion following Rupert Lowe’s message and the subsequent reaction
Lowe posted about the boat at about 20:25 BST on Thursday and said he had alerted the authorities.
He wrote: “Authorities alerted, and I am urgently chasing.
“If these are illegal migrants, I will be using every tool at my disposal to ensure these individuals are deported.
“Enough is enough. Britain needs mass deportations. NOW.”
However, at 06:38 on Friday, he explained the “unknown vessel” was a false alarm.
He said: “We received a huge number of urgent complaints from constituents – I make no apologies over being vigilant for my constituents. It is a national crisis.
“No mass deportations for the charity rowers, but we definitely need it for the illegal immigrants!”
Rupert Lowe/X
Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe posted the picture on X saying he would be “using every tool” to ensure they were deported
Lowe has been vocal in his calls for stronger measures to tackle illegal migration, advocating mass deportations.
He was elected as a Reform UK MP last year but was expelled from the party in March, amid claims of threats towards its chairman, Zia Yusuf.
Lowe denied the allegations and the Crown Prosecution Service said he would not face criminal charges.
The crew of four, which included Mike Bates, a British record-holder for rowing across the Atlantic solo, said they found the post “hilarious”.
Mr Bates said: “I looked to my right and there was maybe a dozen individuals stood on the shoreline staring at us.
“I’ve not been mistaken for a migrant before.
“The best comment was the one asking where the Royal Navy were when you need them. I’m a former Royal Marine, so the Royal Navy were on the boat.”
Robby West/BBC
Mike Bates (left) said it was “almost vigilante-style” how people watched and followed them down the beach
Mr Bates said it was “almost vigilante-style” how people followed them down the beach.
Fellow crew member Matthew Parker said they had been trying find shelter and wait for the tide to turn when they saw a drone flying above and people starting to gather on the shoreline.
“You’ve got these people on the shoreline flashing torches at us,” he said.
“We’ve got the coastguard asking us questions, a police car arrives on the beach with its lights on – how has this managed to get escalated this way?
President Trump has dropped his demand that Rupert Murdoch immediately testify in the president’s libel lawsuit over a Jeffrey Epstein story in the Wall Street Journal, but the 94-year-old media mogul has agreed to provide his health information.
Trump initially demanded Murdoch sit for a deposition within 15 days to answer questions about the Epstein story, citing Murdoch’s advanced age and various health complications.
But the warring sides reached a truce, agreeing that Murdoch instead would provide “a sworn declaration describing his current health condition,” according to a joint stipulation filed in U.S. District Court in Miami late Monday.
“Defendant Murdoch has further agreed to provide regularly scheduled updates to the plaintiff regarding his health, including a mechanism for him to alert [Trump] if there is a material change in his health,” according to the stipulation.
Late last month, the president sued Murdoch, News Corp. and Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. after the paper published a story describing a raunchy birthday greeting that Trump allegedly sent Epstein in 2003 to mark the convicted child sex offender’s 50th birthday. The article said the letter included a sketch of a naked woman, featuring breasts and a squiggly “Donald” signature.
Trump has denied sending the letter, which he said was “fake.” The Journal said the letter was one of dozens of birthday greetings from Epstein friends, which his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell had made into a book.
Trump has said that his friendship with Epstein ended about 20 years ago and that he did not know about Epstein’s crimes.
Trump was furious over the article. His lawsuit recounted a chronology of events, saying the White House became aware of the story after a Journal reporter emailed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to disclose the paper was preparing to publish the story. The White House and Trump’s attorney’s immediately pushed back, saying the allegations were false.
Trump also reached out to Murdoch, according to court filings.
“Murdoch advised President Trump that ‘he would take care of it,’” Trump wrote in a July 17 post on Truth Social, the day the story published. “Obviously, he didn’t have the power to do so,” Trump wrote.
“We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit,” according to a Dow Jones spokeswoman.
Last week, Trump’s attorneys launched a startling bid to force Murdoch to promptly appear for a deposition.
In that motion, Trump’s lawyers cited the mogul’s age and health complications. They said that includes a recent fainting episode, and over the last five years, a broken back, a torn Achilles tendon and atrial fibrillation which could make Murdoch “unavailable for in-person testimony at trial.”
According to the agreement, Trump’s request that Murdoch give a deposition will be put on hold until after the newspaper owners make its case that Trump’s lawsuit should be dismissed.
“Until defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint is adjudicated, the parties agree not to engage in discovery,” the stipulation said.
Rupert Matthews has been Leicestershire’s PCC since 2021
The police and crime commissioner for Leicestershire and Rutland has defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK, giving the party its first PCC.
Rupert Matthews has held the position since 2021 and served as an MEP for the East Midlands for the Tories between 2017 and 2019.
Speaking at a press conference alongside Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, he said the “dark heart of wokeness” needed to be cut out of the criminal justice system.
“The self-serving, self-entitled liberal elite who have let our country down time after time are now on notice their day is almost done,” he said.
“Be they Conservative or Labour governments, everyone knows our politicians have failed us all. They have let this country down. They have let the British people down. Enough. Now is the time for Reform.”
Analysis
By Henry Zeffman, chief political correspondent, BBC News
Rupert Matthews is hardly a big figure in the national Conservative Party.
But his defection will still cause some anxiety. It adds to the sense that at the local level – the bedrock of any political party – the institutional Conservative Party is fraying, and that the energy on the right of British politics is with Reform UK instead.
For Reform, after they gained control of 10 councils in the local elections in May, gaining their first police and crime commissioner is another local government milestone, and a useful office from which to make arguments about what they claim to be Britain’s “lawlessness”.
That said, there is a risk for Reform in acquiring too many ex-Conservatives that they incorporate too many of the politicians who they claim have left Britain in a mess.
Matthews was re-elected as PCC in May 2024, beating Labour’s Rory Palmer by 860 votes.
Announcing the defection on Monday, Farage told the conference: “He’s twice been elected as a Conservative but today he comes across to us as our first police and crime commissioner.”
He added: “Welcome on board.”
The switch could consolidate Reform UK’s power base locally, with the party having led Leicestershire County Council since May.
Labour accused Farage of “swelling the Reform ranks” with “the ghost of Tory past” and said his party offered “anger, but no answers”.
The billionaire — who sits at the top of the world’s most prominent conservative media empire — has become the focus of the president’s fury.
“I hope Rupert and his ‘friends’ are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, a nod to “Fox & Friends,” one of his favorite TV programs. The Journal, he wrote, is a “Disgusting and Filthy Rag,” and Murdoch’s “‘pile of garbage’ newspaper.”
Trump’s attorneys applied more heat last week in a startling bid to force Murdoch to promptly appear for a deposition. In a motion, Trump’s lawyers cited the mogul’s age and health complications, which they said includes a recent fainting episode, and over the last five years, a broken back, a torn Achilles tendon and atrial fibrillation, which could make Murdoch “unavailable for in-person testimony at trial.”
The tussle provides a rare glimpse into the tangled relationship of two titans whose dealings date back a half-century when the Australian-born Murdoch arrived in the U.S. and bought the New York Post, a punchy tabloid with screaming headlines. Trump forged his reputation as a New York real estate tycoon, in part, by dishing scoops to the paper’s celebrity-hungry Page Six.
And Fox News would become one of Trump’s biggest champions. The network has long heaped on positive attention that helped Trump transform himself from reality TV star to the political hero of his Make America Great Again base.
The cable network gave Trump a platform for his unfounded “birther” conspiracies about former President Obama. And Trump’s political rise helped build Fox News into a ratings and financial juggernaut. This summer, Fox News ranks as America’s No. 1 network, according to measurement firm Nielsen, attracting more viewers in prime time than broadcast leaders NBC and CBS.
What’s more, a string of Fox News personalities have joined Trump’s administration, including former weekend host, now secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.
Murdoch and Trump “feed off one another — they’ve had this relationship since the ’70s where they kind of benefit from one another,” said Andrew Dodd, a journalism professor at the University of Melbourne. “But they also have these turns where they’re against each other.”
Gabriel Kahn, a USC journalism professor and former Wall Street Journal reporter, said the tension is real.
“As much as Rupert has pumped up Trump World over the last 10 years, Rupert really sees himself as the kingmaker — not the lackey,” Kahn said.
Trump’s social media posts over the years reveal bouts of frustration with Murdoch and his media properties.
The two men have different political philosophies: Murdoch is known to be a small-government Reagan Republican, “not a true conservative populist” in the MAGA vein, according to one Republican political operative who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Insiders and observers point to a series of slights, including a 2015 remark Murdoch made on Twitter a month after Trump descended on the golden escalator at Trump Tower to announce his first presidential bid, and then ignited a firestorm with anti-immigrant comments.
“When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?” Murdoch asked a decade ago.
Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch and his father, Rupert Murdoch, in 2018.
(Adrian Edwards / GC Images)
Murdoch, at turns, tried to recruit or boost rival presidential hopefuls. Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis received flattering coverage on Fox News early in President Biden’s term.
By that time, Trump was back at Mar-a-Lago after losing the 2020 election and Fox News was navigating treacherous terrain. The network was the first major outlet to call Arizona for Biden on election night, riling Trump and his supporters who viewed the move as a betrayal, one that short-circuited their claims the election had been stolen. Fox News witnessed an immediate viewer exodus.
To win back Trump supporters, the network gave a platform to Trump surrogates who suggested machines flipped votes for Biden, despite the fact that Murdoch and others knew such claims were false, court filings revealed.
“They promulgated the ‘Big Lie,’” Dodd said of Fox News’ post-2020 election coverage. “Now, in the twilight years of his life, Murdoch [may be] thinking: ‘Well, this man really is not worth supporting any longer.’”
Such a shift would not be out of character. Murdoch, in the past, has promoted political leaders and governments, only to pull that support.
In the 1970s, after initially backing Australia’s then-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, Murdoch allegedly directed his editors to “Kill Whitlam,” in a political (not violent) sense. Twenty years later in Britain, Murdoch abandoned the Conservatives after being a close ally of former leader Margaret Thatcher. He famously threw the weight of his tabloid, the Sun, behind Labor’s Tony Blair.
“Murdoch has a long career of breaking what he makes,” Dodd said.
His vast empire, divvied between News Corp. and Fox Corp., allows his outlets to have different leanings. The Journal has lent more skeptical coverage to Trump. It broke stories about Trump’s hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy bunny Karen McDougal. This year, its editorial board called his high tariffs “the dumbest trade war in history.”
Fox News, however, remains staunchly in the president’s camp. Murdoch is “putting one part of the organization in attack mode while keeping the other [Fox News] in reserve while it benefits from the base of the person that he’s attacking,” Dodd said.
The media baron has long relished his proximity to power. He attended Trump’s second inauguration in January and participated with business leaders in an Oval Office meeting a few weeks later.
Two days later, a Journal reporter emailed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, advising that the paper was preparing to publish a story about the Epstein birthday letter, according to Trump’s lawsuit. Trump’s lawyers pushed back, saying the allegations were false.
Trump called Murdoch, according to court filings. “Murdoch advised President Trump that ‘he would take care of it,’” Trump wrote in a July 17 post on Truth Social, the day the story published. “Obviously, he didn’t have the power to do so,” Trump wrote.
Trump sued the next day. A Dow Jones spokeswoman responded: “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
The legal dustup comes after a string of controversial wins for the president.
Last month, Paramount Global agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a dispute over “60 Minutes” edits of a Kamala Harris interview, a lawsuit that 1st Amendment experts said had no merit. In December, Walt Disney Co. paid $16 million to end a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump over inaccurate statements by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos — an outcome derided by some 1st Amendment experts who thought Disney would eventually prevail.
“President Trump has already beaten George Stephanopoulos/ABC, 60 Minutes/CBS, and others, and looks forward to suing and holding accountable the once great Wall Street Journal,” Trump wrote. “It has truly turned out to be a ‘Disgusting and Filthy Rag.’”
Murdoch watchers don’t expect him to capitulate.
“In this bizarre world that we live in, Rupert is actually one of the few people who might be willing to stand up to Trump,” Kahn said. “Remember, Rupert loves newspapers, he loves the scoop and he loves to stir the pot.”
Times staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — President Trump sued Dow Jones and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, for libel on Friday, striking back against the publication of a bombshell story in the Wall Street Journal alleging the president sent a sordid letter to notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in the early 2000s.
The Journal, a Dow Jones publication, reported Thursday that Trump sent a raunchy 50th birthday card to Epstein that included a sketch of a naked woman, featuring breasts and a squiggly “Donald” signature mimicking pubic hair.
The paper said it had reviewed copies of a collection of lewd letters that Epstein’s longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, gathered from Epstein’s friends and colleagues and compiled in an album to mark his 2003 birthday.
“We have just filed a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is, The Wall Street Journal,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Friday, adding that the suit also targets Murdoch and the reporters on the story.
The suit comes amid renewed questions over the nature of Trump’s years-long friendship with Epstein, the late and disgraced financier whose sprawling sex trafficking ring victimized more than 200 women and girls.
On Friday, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said that FBI officials reviewing more 100,000 records from the Epstein investigation in March were directed to flag any documents that mentioned Trump.
In a letter to leadership of the Justice Department, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said his office “was told that these personnel were instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned.”
Trump had already been facing mounting pressure from his MAGA base to publicly release Justice Department files from the case of Epstein.
Trump ordered Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to reverse course on a recent decision to close the case and unseal grand jury testimony. The Justice Department filed a motion to begin that process on Friday afternoon.
“Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval,” Trump announced Thursday on Truth Social. “This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”
The Department of Justice and FBI declared earlier this month in a memo that Epstein’s case was closed and his 2019 death in a New York city jail was a suicide. But Bondi, a Trump appointee and arch loyalist, immediately agreed Thursday to Trump’s new demand.
“President Trump — we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts,” Bondi wrote on X.
It remains to be seen if Trump and Bondi will persuade a federal judge in New York to release the grand jury transcripts. Such documents are typically not made public and released only under narrowly defined circumstances.
Trump and Epstein became friends in the 1980s.
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Mr. Trump told New York magazine, in 2002, noting that Epstein was “a lot of fun to be with” and “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
But their friendship apparently broke down in 2008 after Epstein was convicted of child sexual offenses. Their relationship — and the possibility of Trump’s involvement in Epstein’s crimes — has been scrutinized ever since.
The Epstein case has riveted Trump’s Republican base, largely because of the multimillionaire financier’s connections to rich and powerful people they suspect were involved in his child sex trafficking.
But releasing the files is not entirely up to Trump, even if he wanted to.
“You’ve got decades’ worth of materials,” said David Weinstein, a Miami defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, who said the disclosure of grand jury information is governed by federal rules and cannot be released without a court order.
Even if material does get released, it will pertain only to Epstein and Maxwell’s direct activities — and will be much more limited than the volume of investigative materials, including witness interviews, emails, videos and photos that otherwise exist.
Additionally, “there’s a lot of redactions that will have to be made,” Weinstein said, noting the number of individuals who might have been associated with Epstein during the investigation but were not themselves suspected or charged with crimes. “You’ve seen some of that already in the civil cases that were filed, and where courts have said, ‘No, this is what can be put on the docket.’”
After the Department of Justice dropped the case, many of Trump’s most vocal allies, such as U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), openly dissented from the administration and called for the release of all files.
Earlier this week, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie introduced the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act, which would require Bondi to make public all unclassified records, documents and investigative materials that the Department of Justice holds on the Epstein case.
“We all deserve to know what’s in the Epstein files, who’s implicated, and how deep this corruption goes,” Massie said in a statement. “Americans were promised justice and transparency. We’re introducing a discharge petition to force a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on releasing the COMPLETE files.”
A poll conducted by the Economist/YouGov this month found that 83% of Trump’s 2024 supporters favor the government releasing all material related to the Epstein case.
Wilner reported from Washington, Jarvie from Atlanta. Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.
US Justice Department files a motion in Manhattan federal court to unseal grand jury transcripts in the Epstein cases.
United States President Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal publication and its owners, including media magnate Rupert Murdoch, seeking at least $10bn in damages over the publication of a bombshell report on the president’s friendship with the infamous high-society sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump filed the lawsuit in federal court in the Southern District of Florida on Friday, as he attempts to prevent a growing scandal around the Epstein case from spreading further and threatening to cause him serious political damage.
Trump also instructed the US Justice Department to file a motion in Manhattan federal court to unseal grand jury transcripts in the Epstein case and that of his former associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who in 2021 was convicted of five federal charges related to her role in Epstein’s sexual abuse of underage girls.
In the defamation lawsuit, Trump accuses Dow Jones, News Corp, Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal reporters of acting with malicious intent that caused him overwhelming financial and reputational harm. Dow Jones, the parent company of the newspaper, is a division of News Corp.
Before filing the case, Trump wrote on Friday morning on his social media platform Truth Social: “I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ‘pile of garbage’ newspaper, the WSJ. That will be an interesting experience!!!”
Representatives of Dow Jones, News Corp and Murdoch have yet to comment on the case.
Trump once considered Epstein a friend, and the controversy surrounding the now deceased high-profile figure, who took his own life in prison, has prompted conspiracy theories, especially among the far-right supporters of the US president.
Trump supporters were enraged last week when US Attorney General Pam Bondi reversed course on the president’s election campaign pledge to release court documents that some believed contained damning revelations about Epstein and his alleged elite clientele.
The newspaper said the letter contained a lewd handwritten reference to a woman, with the message: “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret,” and featured the signature “Donald”.
Following publication, Trump denied sending the letter to Epstein and lashed out at the newspaper.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019. Many among Trump’s base of supporters believe the government is covering up Epstein’s ties to the rich and powerful, and some do not believe he died by his own hand.
A Justice Department memo released on July 7 concluded that Epstein killed himself and said there was “no incriminating client list” or evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent people.
However, Bondi, the US attorney general, had pledged months ago to release major revelations about Epstein, including “a lot of names” and “a lot of flight logs”, before reversing course. On Friday, Bondi’s Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said public interest in the Epstein case had prompted the Justice Department to file a request with the court to unseal transcripts of the case.
Trump, who was photographed with Epstein multiple times in social settings in the 1990s and early 2000s, told reporters in 2019 that he ended his relationship with Epstein before his legal troubles became apparent.
Andrew Turner/BBC
Rupert Lowe/X
Robby West/BBC
