He said that if he didn’t, Reform “wouldn’t have won any seats in Parliament at all on the fourth of July last year”, and there would have been “a cat’s chance in hell” that Mr Lowe would have won his own Great Yarmouth seat.

“He’s on the front bench, so what’s he talking about?” Mr Farage said, adding: “With only five people you can’t really have a shadow cabinet can you? We’ve got a lot of development to do but we’re absolutely not a protest party.”

He also told The Telegraph: “It’s difficult to have a front bench with only five MPs, isn’t it? And he’s one of them.”

Pressed on his colleague’s remarks about his delegating skills, he said: “Delegate? I’ve delegated everything.”

He added: “If we had 30 MPs, we’d have a front bench, but with five, we can’t.”

Asked why Mr Lowe was going public with his comments, Mr Farage said: “Perhaps he wants to be Prime Minister – most people in politics do… his comments are wrong, we are making gigantic strides.”

Richard Tice, the Deputy Leader of Reform, said “there’s no harm in a bit of challenge” when asked about Mr Lowe’s comments on BBC Question Time on Thursday evening.

Asked whether Mr Lowe should be an MP, Mr Tice said: “Rupert is doing a good job. He’s working hard. We’re all working hard. We’ve got a small number of MPs. We’re growing in the polls, and that’s because we’ve got the policies to get this country growing” before adding that Mr Lowe is “a businessman, we’re all from the world of business, we get things done”.

He added: “At the end of the day, I wouldn’t make those comments, but there’s no harm in a bit of challenge.”

The exchange marks the first public rift among the small group of Reform MPs that have sat in the House of Commons since their election in July.

Chris Philp MP, the shadow home secretary, said the row exposed the “internecine warfare at the top of Reform”.

“Their MPs are more concerned with their own egos, and advancing their personal ambitions, rather than standing up for the British people,” he said.

“With one of Farage’s most senior MPs doubting his leadership abilities and admitting that Reform is a protest party with no plan, it is clear that Reform [is] not serious, and will always put self-interest above our national interest.”

It comes after Mr Lowe appeared to be touted as a possible successor to Mr Farage by Elon Musk.

The US billionaire criticised Mr Farage in January after the Reform leader distanced himself from Tommy Robinson, claiming “Farage doesn’t have what it takes”.