'The company recorded a “£7.9million pre-tax profit in 2021 – with a further £2.65million in 2022.'
Reform UK likes to talk a lot about making efficient use of government money, yet it’s been revealed that a company connected to one of its own MPs raked in £100,000 in taxpayer-funded furlough cash despite making almost £8million in profit.
Rupert Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth, is director of Biopharma Process Systems Ltd. The Mirror reports that the company recorded a “£7.9million pre-tax profit in 2021 – with a further £2.65million in 2022. It paid dividends of £1.7million in 2022 and £2.16million in 2021. The company got £141,741 in government grants in 2021, according to accounts.”
Lowe is a shareholder in PE487 Limited, which owns Biopharma Process Systems Ltd. The former Southampton FC chairman, was elected as the Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth in July, pledging to hand his MP’s salary to good causes.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Mr Lowe or the firm.
Lowe told the Mirror: “I am involved in a range of business interests, exclusively in a non-executive director role. This brings welcome experience to Parliament, otherwise severely lacking in individuals who know and understand how businesses operate.
“In no way am I the ‘boss’ of Biopharma, I am a non-executive director – with no say over the day-to-day running of the company. As with all areas of the economy, lockdown changed the way that industries operated. I myself actively and vocally campaigned against lockdowns and the widespread use of COVID testing.
“Evidently, my directorship made zero impact on my very public view on lockdown and the wider COVID response, which remains the biggest Government policy mistake inflicted on the British population during my lifetime.
“I declared my directorship in PE487, the holding company that controls and owns Biopharma operations, as I was under the impression this was sufficient to demonstrate my involvement in the group – which was already fully public through my declarations.
“All directorships in separate Biopharma companies, and my shareholding in PE487, have now been declared in order to clarify matters. I made a promise during the campaign to the good people of Great Yarmouth to donate my monthly net MP salary to local worthy causes, and I am sticking to it – something rather unusual in today’s politics, I know.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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