Rupert Lowe reports charity rowers to coastguard as possible ‘illegal migrants’

Rupert Lowe’s ‘illegal migrants’ were in fact, from left to right, Liz Wardley, Mike Bates, Aaron Kneebone and Matthew Parker of Row4MND. Photograph: Mike Newman/Row4MND/PA

The independent MP Rupert Lowe has agreed to donate £1,000 to a charity after mistaking its rowing crew, including a former Royal Marine, for possible “illegal migrants”.

Lowe, who was elected as a Reform MP for Great Yarmouth but now sits as an independent, said he had shopped the crew to the authorities and vowed to do everything he could to have them deported if they turned out to be what he suspected