UK MP Sparks Row: A British parliamentarian has sparked a row after he made anti-migrant reamrks againt Indian and Pakistani immigrants despite the apparent risk of being labelled racist.
Independent UK
MP Rupert Lowe, who represents Great Yarmouth, asserte that the UK should not “import millions of Pakistanis and Indians” for jobs that he claimed should go to unemployed Britons.
“I don’t believe we should import millions of Pakistanis and Indians to do jobs that unemployed Brits should be doing. If that makes me racist, then so be it,” Lowe said in a post on X.
I don’t believe we should import millions of Pakistanis and Indians to do jobs that unemployed Brits should be doing.
If that makes me a racist, then so be it.
— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) May 28, 2026
According to the 2021 Census by the Office for National Statistics, Lowe’s constituency of Great Yarmouth has only 907 residents of Indian and Pakistani origin out of a population of nearly 1 lakh, accounting for less than 1% of the constituency’s population.
As per the official data, Great Yarmouth’s unemployment rate stands at 9.8%, significantly higher than the UK national average of 5.4%.
According to the data by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, migrant workers are largely employed in sectors facing severe labour shortages. “Migrants in the UK Labour Market: An Overview”, nationally, 20% of employee jobs in December 2025 were held by non-UK nationals – 6.5 million jobs. This share has increased steadily from 12% in 2014.
A large share of non-EU migrant workers are employed in the health and care sector, where staffing shortages have led the government to expand visa eligibility for overseas workers.
Lowe has previously faced criticism for his comments on immigration. In December 2025, he posted on X that Britain “was built by British men and women,” dismissing the role of immigrants in the country’s development.
The MP was elected as a Reform UK candidate in 2024 but later had the party whip suspended in 2025. He now leads the Restore Britain party, which has also faced criticism over its hardline stance on immigration.
