A group of charity rowers were stopped and searched by a Border Force patrol boat after MP Rupert Lowe mistakenly identified them as “illegal immigrants” on social media. Footage shared by charity ROW4MD on Instagram on Thursday (8 August) shows the rowers saying goodbye to the coastguard after proving their boat was not carrying migrants. Sharing a photo of a boat off the Norfolk coast on Thursday evening, the independent MP announced he had “alerted authorities” to the vessel, posting: “If these are illegal migrants, I will be using every tool at my disposal to ensure these individuals are deported.” The boat was in fact crewed by a team of four individuals who are attempting to row from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise money for motor neurone disease.

‘Authorities alerted, and I am urgently chasing,’ the Great Yarmouth MP wrote on social media

‘Dinghies coming into Great Yarmouth, RIGHT NOW,’ the former Reform member wrote on social media

MP agrees to donate £1,000 to crew’s fundraising effort after alerting authorities to their boat off Great Yarmouth

A group of charity rowers were stopped and searched by a Border Force patrol boat after MP Rupert Lowe mistakenly identified them as “illegal immigrants” on social media. Footage…

The Independent MP, who won the Great Yarmouth seat for Reform UK before being ousted from the party, claimed yesterday that 'dinghies' were heading towards the Norfolk coast.