Rupert Lowe mistakes charity rowers for ‘illegal migrants’

He ended up donating to the crew

In an embarrassing gaff, the independent MP for Great Yarmouth posted a furious tweet on Thursday about “dinghies coming into Great Yarmouth RIGHT NOW.”

Sharing a picture of a boat off the shore, Lowe said: “Authorities alerted, and I am urgently chasing. If these are illegal migrants, I will be using every tool at my disposal to ensure individuals are deported.”

“Enough is enough. Britain needs mass deportations. NOW.”

But it turned out that the boat was in fact a charity rowing crew, who were subsequently radioed by the coastguard to say they had been “reported as a migrant boat.”

One of the crew members, Matthew Parker, told the BBC they were then followed along the coast by a “group of people with torches obviously waiting for us to land.”

After Lowe realised the humiliating gaff he had made, he posted on X that it had been a “false alarm,” and said he would donate £1,000 to the rowers’ campaign, which is raising money for motor neurone disease research.

The MP claimed he had received a “huge number of urgent complaints from constituents”, adding: “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 migrants!”

The ROW4MND crew are attempting a four-year endurance rowing campaign aiming to raise £57m for motor neurone disease research. You can read more about their efforts here.