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A high court judge has dismissed an attempt by the independent MP Rupert Lowe to block a parliamentary watchdog from investigating a complaint against him.
Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, is taking legal action against the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS), which investigates complaints of inappropriate behaviour against MPs, after the body’s decision last July to investigate a complaint made about him.
At a high court hearing earlier this month, Lowe asked a judge for an interim injunction preventing the ICGS from investigating the complaint pending a resolution of his claim against it.
The body opposed the move and is defending the wider legal challenge, arguing the court has no jurisdiction over the matter and that it would interfere with parliamentary privilege.
In a ruling delivered on Tuesday, Mr Justice Chamberlain dismissed Lowe’s request for an interim injunction, saying: “It seems to me that there is a strong public interest in allowing a process established pursuant to resolutions of the House of Commons to take its course.”
In written submissions for a hearing on 17 February, Lowe’s lawyer, Christopher Newman, said the wider legal challenge “alleges procedural unfairness in the processes of ICGS, as well as perversity and illegality”.
He said that, while Lowe was “becoming a major force, arguably, in politics”, temporarily blocking the ICGS from investigating the complaint would not harm the watchdog.
Sarah Hannett KC, for the ICGS, said Lowe – who announced the launch of a new political party called Restore Britain earlier this month – was subject to rules and procedures setting out standards of behaviour for members of the House of Commons.
She said this meant Lowe was “answerable to the house” about the allegations, and that it was not “the constitutional role of the court to supervise or interfere with that”.
A separate hearing on whether the court has jurisdiction to deal with the wider legal challenge is scheduled for 17 March.
In his ruling on Tuesday, Chamberlain said the risk of harm to Lowe if the temporary block was not granted had been “overstated” and it seemed “very unlikely” the ICGS would make any public findings related to its investigation before the March hearing.
The judge said the beneficiaries of the complaints system included not only complainants but also constituents and the wider public. “This public interest in the continued operation of the complaints process would be a weighty one in any case, and would be especially so if the claimant is, as Mr Newman says, becoming a major political force.”
Last June, MPs approved changes to the watchdog, including establishing a permanent ICGS assurance board to scrutinise its performance and hold its director to account. That followed a review of the ICGS in which the former Hampshire police chief constable Paul Kernaghan made 26 recommendations including mandatory training on parliament’s code of conduct for all MPs.
Lowe was elected as a Reform UK MP but was suspended by the party in March last year amid claims he had threatened the then party chair, Zia Yusuf. He denied the allegations and the Crown Prosecution Service said no criminal charges would be brought against him.
