{"id":34727,"date":"2025-08-09T00:40:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T00:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/rupert-lowe-mp-mistook-charity-rowers-as-possible-illegal-migrants\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T00:40:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T00:40:03","slug":"rupert-lowe-mp-mistook-charity-rowers-as-possible-illegal-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/rupert-lowe-mp-mistook-charity-rowers-as-possible-illegal-migrants\/","title":{"rendered":"Rupert Lowe MP mistook charity rowers as possible ‘illegal migrants’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Neve Gordon-Farleigh<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News, Norfolk<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"AndrewAndrew Turner\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Rupert Lowe says he will now be donating \u00a31,000 to charity after his mistake <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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An MP has admitted he mistakenly thought a charity rowing crew could have been “illegal migrants”.<\/p>\n

Independent MP Rupert Lowe shared a picture on X on Thursday, showing a boat close to wind turbines <\/a> off the Norfolk coast, and wrote: “Dinghies coming into Great Yarmouth, RIGHT NOW”.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

In a later post<\/a>, Lowe said: “As a well done to the crew, I’ll donate \u00a31,000 to their charity – raising money for MND (motor neurone disease).”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The charity rowers described their confusion following Rupert Lowe’s message and the subsequent reaction<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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Lowe posted about the boat at about 20:25 BST and said he had alerted the authorities. <\/p>\n

He wrote: “Authorities alerted, and I am urgently chasing.<\/p>\n

“If these are illegal migrants, I will be using every tool at my disposal to ensure these individuals are deported.<\/p>\n

“Enough is enough. Britain needs mass deportations. NOW.”<\/p>\n

However, at 06:38 on Friday, he explained the “unknown vessel” was a false alarm. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“No mass deportations for the charity rowers, but we definitely need it for the illegal immigrants!” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"RupertRupert Lowe\/X<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe posted the picture on X saying he would be “using every tool” to ensure they were deported<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Lowe has been vocal in his calls for stronger measures to tackle illegal migration, advocating mass deportations.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Lowe denied the allegations and the Crown Prosecution Service said he would not face criminal charges.<\/p>\n

The crew of four, which included Mike Bates, a British record-holder for rowing across the Atlantic solo, said they found the post “hilarious”. <\/p>\n

Mr Bates said: “I looked to my right and there was maybe a dozen individuals stood on the shoreline staring at us.<\/p>\n

“I’ve not been mistaken for a migrant before.<\/p>\n

“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.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"RobbyRobby West\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mike Bates (left) said it was “almost vigilante-style” how people watched and followed them down the beach<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Mr Bates said it was “almost vigilante-style” how people followed them down the beach. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

“You’ve got these people on the shoreline flashing torches at us,” he said.<\/p>\n

“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?<\/p>\n

“I just thought it was ridiculous.”<\/p>\n

team of four had set off from Land’s End<\/a> on 25 July and headed north into the Irish Sea before bad weather forced them to stop at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire.<\/p>\n

The team turned around and returned to Land’s End and then started their challenge again in the other direction. <\/p>\n

So far they have raised more than \u00a3100,000 for charity and hope to raise even more. <\/p>\n

Mr Bates said: “We’re rowing for hope, we’re rowing to find a cure, and hopefully we’ll raise \u00a357m – we certainly will if MPs keep talking about us.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Thin,<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neve Gordon-Farleigh BBC News, Norfolk Andrew Turner\/BBC Rupert Lowe says he will now be donating \u00a31,000 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[3067,2088,8971,3948,11326,11327,8970],"class_list":["post-34727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-charity","tag-illegal","tag-lowe","tag-migrants","tag-mistook","tag-rowers","tag-rupert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34729,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34727\/revisions\/34729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}