Reform MP James McMurdock has resigned the party whip as he faces an investigation into £70,000 worth of Covid bounce back loans he took out for businesses during the pandemic.
It was announced on Saturday that McMurdock had ‘removed the party whip from himself pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations that are likely to be published by a national newspaper’.
Reform Chief Whip Lee Anderson said the MP had quit due to allegations surrounding his ‘business propriety during the pandemic’.
McMurdock, 39, who was previously jailed for attacking an ex-girlfriend, left Reform on Saturday, seemingly after being approached with allegations by The Times newspaper.
According to the Times, McMurdock took out the maximum loan of £50,000 for firm JAM Financial Limited, which had no employees and almost no assets until the pandemic.
In order to qualify for a £50,000 loan from the government, companies had to have a turnover of more than £200,000.
Documents on Companies House showed how the firm’s ‘current assets’ jumped from just £125 in 2019 to £50,137 in 2020, the year of the loan. After receiving the money, McMurdock allegedly then resigned from the company and gave his shares to his mother.
A second company, Gym Live Health and Fitness Limited, was a dormant company until the end of January in 2020 yet borrowed £20,000 during the pandemic, for which it would have had to have a turnover of £100,000.
Reform MP James McMurdock has ‘removed the party whip from himself pending the outcome of an investigation’
McMurdock pictured with Nigel Farage. The newly elected Reform UK MP was once jailed for attacking a former girlfriend
Neither company has filed accounts or annual corporate filings since the loans.
Both companies were set to be struck from the register, meaning they would cease to exist – but this was paused by a complaint from a third party, thought to be in relation to the outstanding loans.
McMurdock has also been accused by the paper of breaching parliamentary rules by failing to declare that he is a director of the Gym business on his register of interests.
In a statement, Anderson said: ‘I have today received a call from James McMurdock who has advised me, as chief whip, that he has 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.
‘At Reform UK we take these matters very seriously and James has agreed to cooperate in full with any investigation. We will not be commenting further at this moment.’
Just yesterday, McMurdock posted on X, formerly Twitter to mark a year since the election and wrote: ‘What a year. What a privilege.’
He told the Times to ‘be very, very careful’ when approached for comment and said ‘a technical expert’ would be needed for anybody to understand the matters.
McMurdock (pictured, right, on July 6) was elected MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock last week which saw him join Mr Farage as one of the new party’s team of five in Westminster
Reform UK MP McMurdock (furthest right) pictured arriving at the House of Commons with (L-R), Lee Anderson, Nigel Farage, Rupert Lowe and Richard Tice
He added on X on Saturday: ‘I confirmed to the [Times] journalist that all my business dealings had always been conducted fully within the law and in compliance with all regulations and that appropriately qualified professionals had reviewed all activity confirming the same.
‘As a precautionary measure, and for the protection of Reform UK, I have asked to have the whip suspended temporarily.’
McMurdock was elected as MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock at the July 4 general election.
His constituency was one of the tightest in the country as he won his seat by just 98 votes.
But controversy soon followed after it emerged the politician from Essex had been jailed for assaulting his ex-girlfriend outside a nightclub.
The attack, which took place nearly 20 years ago while McMurdock was working as a barman, occurred during an alcohol-fuelled night out in Cheltenham.
The attack was brought to a halt by two doorman who pulled him off and called the police.
McMurdock was arrested and charged with assault.
At first he denied the assault – forcing his victim and witnesses to give statements to the police – before eventually admitting the offence as he was about to go on trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.
McMurdock was sentenced to a short prison term.
After he was elected, the victim’s mother told MailOnline: ‘McMurdock is a monster. He left marks on her body.
‘It took two security guards to pull him off her.
Just yesterday McMurdock posted it was a ‘privilege’ to have been a Reform UK MP for a year
‘There is no way he should be an MP in the House of Commons representing people.’
In a statement when the allegations re-emerged, McMurdock disputed the details of the attack.
He said: ‘Nearly 20 years ago, at 19 years of age, at the end of a night out together, we argued and I pushed her.
‘She fell over and she was hurt. Despite being 38 now and having lived a whole life again I still feel deeply ashamed of that moment and apologetic.’
Reform UK is now back to just four MPs, after winning five seats at last year’s election.
But in March MP for Great Yarmouth Rupert Lowe was stripped of the whip after a protracted row with party leader Nigel Farage and bully accusations.
In an explosive statement issued on March 7, Mr Yusuf and Mr Anderson said Mr Lowe was being investigated over complaints by two female employees.
They also said Mr Lowe – who now sits in the House of Commons as an independent MP – had been reported to police over allegations he physically threatened Mr Yusuf.
But Mr Lowe immediately hit back at the party’s ‘untrue and false’ claims and said he had been ‘knifed’ for publicly questioning Nigel Farage’s leadership of Reform.
He also threatened to sue Farage and reform if they did not withdraw remarks they made about him.
After Rupert Lowe left the party earlier this year, the party regained a fifth MP in Sarah Pochin, who won a by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in May by just six votes.
Days after her election to the House of Commons, former Reform Chairman Zia Yusuf abruptly quit the party after Pochin used her first question at PMQs to call for a debate on banning the burqa.
Just 48 hours later, it was announced he would return in a different role.
