The former football chairman and businessman will on Wednesday officially declare he is standing for election in Kingswood, South Gloucestershire.
A by-election is being held in the little-known seat on February 15 after ex-Conservative MP Chris Skidmore quit. It is the same day as a vote in Wellingborough after veteran Tory Peter Bone faced a recall petition for breaching the MPs’ code of conduct.
The seismic judgment day is a barometer ahead of the general election, set to be held in November.
Reform UK leader Richard Tice described the Kingswood by-election as “a scandal of selfishness, of hypocrisy, and of grotesque abuse of taxpayers’ cash” and initially refused to put up a candidate.
But Mr Lowe, 66, who stood as a Referendum Party general election candidate in The Cotswolds in 1997, finishing fourth, told the Daily Express of his intention to stand with the full support of his boss.
He said: “If you’re happy with the way you are being governed, that’s fine, please vote as you always have. But I see this as an ideal opportunity to deliver a message, not just to the Tories, but Labour under Keir Starmer, which is far worse, and the Liberal Democrats who are the most venal and unpleasant people I have ever known.
“The rotten establishment is failing us. People don’t want more career politicians climbing the greasy pole. They want change.”
Fervent net zero activist Mr Skidmore quit over government policy to allow further licenses to drill for oil and gas in the North Sea, plunging his party into chaos.
Kingswood is due to be abolished at the election but, perversely, next month’s vote could be one of the most significant by-elections in history. The Tories currently have a 11,220 majority.
Last year Labour won seats in Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth, overturning Tory majorities of nearly 25,000 and 20,000, respectively.
Married Mr Lowe, who served as the Brexit Party’s MEP for the West Midlands, is now Reform UK’s business spokesman.
He has promised to donate his £86,584 salary to local good causes and charities if he snatches the seat.
He said: “Initially we were not going to stand a candidate but realised we were incorrect. This is a free vote for people to send a message to the rotten establishment which includes ministers, MPs, the civil service, judiciary and an out of control legal industry which has enriched far too many.
“I have nothing to gain but I can act as a lightning rod for the reservoir of discontent that is bubbling away. People know things have got to change and they have got to change rapidly
“I am standing because this is the last chance the electorate has. They have very little power, but I want to act as an agent of change.”
Mr Lowe, who lives in Gloucestershire, also took an active role in the successful Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 EU referendum. He had planned to stand as a Brexit Party candidate in Dudley North at the 2019 general election, but withdrew.
He said: “Look what happened at the [European Parliament] elections in May 2019. The Brexit Party was months old, and we wiped the floor with the establishment parties.
“I am asking the people of Kingswood to lend me their vote to show they are not happy with the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems. I have friends leaving the country because they fear Keir Starmer getting in. Who knows what he is going to do. But it’s all flannel and it will certainly mean more civil servants, more tax, more intrusion, and less ability of Middle England to live their own lives. Kingswood has the chance to lead the charge for change.”
