Reform MP James McMurdock resigns whip over allegations of business impropriety | OneFootball

A Reform UK MP has resigned the party whip pending an investigation into allegations of business impropriety before he was elected, the party’s chief whip has said.

James McMurdock will sit as an independent while a probe takes place over the allegations, which he said are likely to emerge in the press this weekend.

Reform’s chief whip Lee Anderson said: “At Reform UK, we take these matters very seriously and James has agreed to cooperate in full with any investigation.”

open image in gallery

James McMurdock voluntarily gave up the whip (PA)

It quickly emerged that Mr McMurdock had suspended himself after The Sunday Times approached him with allegations that he borrowed £70,000 under the government’s Bounce Back loans scheme during the pandemic in 2020.

The newspaper reported that he did so through two companies he owned, JAM Financial Limited and Gym Live Health and Fitness Limited.

The former had no employees and negligible assets, it said, and took out a £50,000 loan in 2020, the maximum amount available. It would have had to have at least £200,000 in turnover to receive the loan.

He resigned as a director and transferred his shares to his mother in 2021, the Times reported.

The second company was dormant until 2020, but in 2021 borrowed £20,000 under the scheme, which would have required a turnover of £100,000.

Mr McMurdock may have also fallen foul of parliamentary rules by not declaring his directorships of the companies in his register of interests.

Commenting on the story, Mr McMurdock told the Times to “be very, very careful” and said “a technical expert” would be needed to make sense of the matters, but did not say why he took out the loans.

Mr Anderson’s statement said: “I have today received a call from James McMurdock, who has advised me, as chief whip, that he removed the party whip from himself pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations that are likely to be published by a national newspaper.

“The allegations relate to business propriety during the pandemic and before he became an MP.”

It leaves Nigel Farage’s insurgent right-wing party again with just four MPs, with Reform previously suspending Rupert Lowe for criticising the arch-Brexiteer’s leadership.

The suspension comes just one year after Mr McMurdock entered parliament almost by accident, having agreed to stand in the general election as a so-called paper candidate.

He won his South Basildon and East Thurrock seat by 98 votes, having given up a high-paying job at a financial firm in the City of London to become an MP. The 39-year-old, who has previously worked for Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, specialising in energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing, ran his campaign with only the help of his parents.

But the unexpected election of Mr McMurdock created a major headache for Mr Farage, as it emerged months later that he had once been jailed for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend.

After initially admitting to having “pushed” his partner, court records showed he was in fact detained in a young offenders’ institution for 21 days for kicking the victim around four times, in an incident which took place in 2006. Mr McMurdock pleaded guilty to assault by beating, and the “serious nature of the offence” meant the sentence was not suspended.

He has apologised and said the incident is the “biggest regret” of his life.

Mr McMurdock’s suspension plunges Reform into chaos yet again, with the party having faced repeated bouts of infighting since the general election.

It comes just weeks after chair Zia Yusuf sensationally quit, only to return to the fold 48 hours later as head of Reform’s cost-cutting Doge unit, modelled after Elon Musk’s former role in the Trump administration.

That came after ex-Reform MP Mr Lowe left the party to set up his own right-wing challenger, branding Mr Farage a “viper” after an inquiry into allegations he made “verbal threats” against Mr Yusuf.

Mr Lowe said he was ashamed to have represented the party and launched an extraordinary attack on its leader.

open image in gallery

Rupert Lowe was suspended after a clash with Nigel Farage (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

“Nigel Farage must never be prime minister,” he said in a statement.

Reform has faced chaos in its lower ranks as well after huge success in May’s local elections. After taking control of 10 councils, with hundreds of councillors across the country, a series of its representatives quit within weeks, with some turning on Reform and Mr Farage.

One councillor resigned from Reform just days after being elected, having promised to defect from the party anyway after the local elections. Donna Edmunds called for Mr Lowe to establish a challenger party on the right of Reform and also said Mr Farage “must never be prime minister”.

But the chaos does not appear to have slowed Reform’s rise in the polls, with a major YouGov poll recently indicating Mr Farage would win the most seats by far if an election were held today.

YouGov said Reform would jump from having just five MPs to 271, with Mr Farage poised to form a minority government.