It might have have gone under the radar for Southampton supporters, but ex CEO and Chairman of Saints Rupert Lowe was elected as a Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth last week, representing the Reform party and he has pledged to donate his salary to charity.
The mention of Rupert Lowe will draw a very mixed reaction from Southampton fans and most of it will be in the negative, but the BBC is reporting that after his election as an MP he is doing something positive.
The view many have of Lowe is slightly unfair, whilst there can be no doubt that at times his tenure at the club sparked controversy and he made some major gaffes, it should be balanced by the fact that he also achieved a lot, including keeping the club in the Premier League with just about the lowest income in the division before we moved to St Mary's and the subsequent move to the new stadium, although it has to be said the path to that was far from smooth.
The final 18 months of his first period saw him lose the plot a little, the appointment and subsequent sacking of Paul Sturrock after just 13 league games spread over 5 months was not his finest moment and the decision to replace him with Steve Wigley before sacking him 3 months later to then bring in Harry Redknapp was a disaster.
Failure to win promotion at the first attempt saw him depart in 2006 for Michael Wilde, but Lowe left the club in a good position financially and it's subsequent meltdown could not be placed at his door.
He should never have returned for his second spell, by then the club was on the verge of Administration and he came back to try and stop that happening, some claimed that his policy of getting rid of as many of the experienced professionals that he could and playing youngsters led by Jan Poortvliet was part of some bizarre experiment, but the truth was we were a club trying to get through a season losing money with the hope that in the summer of 2009, we would get some big earners off the books and be able to survive.
That, as history tells us did not happen, in March 2009 Barclays froze the overdraft and Lowe had to call in the receivers, he did however leave a lasting legacy in that one of his final signings for the club that cost a fee was 18 year old Morgan Schneiderlin, who went on to play for the club for 7 seasons and 231 League games and would be sold to Manchester United for £25 million, a true club legend.
He departed the club himself at the same time and many will see him as the man who took the club to the verge of extinction, whilst I am no apologist for Lowe, I also feel that a balanced view should be given, he should be blamed for the misdemeanours that he was responsible for, he should not be castigated for those that he was not responsible for, not those he wasn't.
He disappeared from view after his final departure in March 2009 and returned to his business life outside of football, he also returned to his political life.
Before plotting up at the Dell in 1997, he has stood as a candidate in the General Election of that year for the Referendum Party, a forerunner of Reform and he also was a player in the Vote leave campaign of 2016 that canvassed for Brexit as it became known.
In 2023, Lowe returned to politics as Reform UK's Business and Agriculture Spokesman and he subsequently contested the 2024 Kingswood by-election, finishing 3rd.
Now he has achieved his aim of becoming a Member of Parliament and his first act has been to pledge his net salary to a charity each month.
He had this to say on social media.
"I’m donating my entire net MP salary to Great Yarmouth charities/worthy causes," Mr Lowe posted.
"Each month, a different one will be chosen and I will post proof for every single one."
His spokesman said the MP was looking at developing an application process and that the decision was personal.
According to the UK Parliament website the gross salary for an MP is £91,346. so roughly speaking £7,600 a month, the net amount will be considerably smaller after tax and national insurance, probably a little over £5,000 per month, but it is good to see that it will go to good use.
I am sure that some Saints fans will read this and spit on the ground at the mention of Rupert Lowe's name and deride me for writing what they would see as a pro Lowe stance, that is far from the case, this is a short story about what Lowe is doing now, it is not anywhere near the full story of his 10 seasons at the club, if I was to do that it would need more than a brief article, it would need a whole book, perhaps one day it will be written and the full story come out, but it should be a balanced one.
Lowe's popularity at Southampton FC was a roller coaster ride and as much as the Lowe out protests had popular support, the same people who were screaming for his departure, where doing just the opposite in 2021 when they walked through the turnstiles of St Mary's for the first time or at Cardiff for the FA Cup final in 2003.