Reform did ‘zero' checks on suspended MP, admits Farage
The MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock left the party on Saturday amid allegations surrounding his 'business propriety' during the pandemic.
The Reform party leader said that there had been no due diligence conducted prior to Mr McMurdock's selection, but that the party had since 'professionalised' its vetting process.
He told LBC: 'There was no due diligence on him at all. Zero. I mean, I inherited this.
'I said after the general election last year that I'd put proper professional vetting in place. I've done that.
'We fielded more candidates than anybody on May 1. There was hardly any arguments at all.'
He added: 'I can't verify the future of everybody going ahead, but have we now professionalised the party to stop this sort of thing ever happening again? Yes.'
Mr Farage also refused to rule out Mr McMurdock's return to the party pending the outcome of any party investigations into the claims.
The Sunday Times alleged that Mr McMudock borrowed £70,000 for two businesses under the Government's Bounce Back loan scheme during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It reported that Jam Financial Limited, one of Mr McMurdock's firms, allegedly received £50,000 in 2020, the largest loan available for medium-sized businesses with an annual turnover of more than £200,000.
Gym Live Health and Fitness Limited, another of Mr McMurdock's businesses, allegedly took out a £20,000 loan in 2020, which would have required an annual turnover of more than £100,000.
Jam Financial Limited allegedly had no employees and negligible assets until the pandemic, and Gym Live Health and Fitness Limited was also dormant until Jan 31 2020.
Mr McMurdock said in a statement on X that 'all my business dealings had always been conducted fully within the law and in compliance with all regulations'.
He added that he asked for the whip to be suspended as a 'precautionary measure' and 'for the protection of Reform UK'.
Statement from James McMurdock.
Thursday evening I received a phone call from a journalist who followed an extremely aggressive and clumsy line of questioning where he confused assets, profit, and turnover. He confirmed that the phone call was off the record and I advised him…
— James McMurdock MP (@JamesReform) July 5, 2025
Mr McMurdock unexpectedly won his Essex seat at last year's election, securing a majority of just 98 over Labour.
Shortly after his win, reports emerged about a historic conviction for assaulting a former girlfriend.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Farage warned Reform councillors that they must behave with 'integrity'.
He told Kent county council members that 'behaving with integrity is a responsibility upon all of you' but said that this did not mean they should be 'stuffed shirts'.
The local authority is the largest that Mr Farage's party controls, after Reform made sweeping gains at the local elections in May.
Zia Yusuf was brought into Reform last summer as the party chairman, who would be responsible for the professionalisation of the party.
Last month, Mr Yusuf dramatically resigned from the party, announcing on X: 'I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office.'
He returned to the party just two days later, saying that his decision to quit had been 'born of exhaustion'.
Mr McMurdock is the second MP to have left the party since last year's election.
The party expelled Rupert Lowe in March over allegations of workplace bullying and threats against its chairman, which he has strongly denied.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
35 minutes ago
- Sky News
Officers who confronted Southport killer reveal how they disarmed him - as they are nominated for police bravery award
Why you can trust Sky News The officers who confronted the Southport killer have described, for the first time publicly, how they disarmed him - as they joined a list of 70 officers nominated for a police bravery award. Sergeant Greg Gillespie, 42, PC Luke Holden, 31, and PCSO Tim Parry, 32, were the first to arrive as Axel Rudakubana rampaged with a knife through a holiday dance school last summer. Speaking to Sky News about what they saw when arriving at the scene, Sgt Gillespie said: "There was maybe 20 or 25 adults and all of them were looking at me, all of them have this look of terror and fear, panic on their faces and I knew whatever it was we were turning up to was really, really bad." His colleagues drove fast from Southport police station and were thirty seconds or so behind Sgt Gillespie. PC Holden said he saw "a large puddle of blood on the floor outside the door" and said Sgt Gillespie "just looked at me" and asked if he was ready. "That was it, there was no conversation. There was nothing else going on. He said, 'Are you ready?' and I said, 'Yeah, let's go'." PCSO Parry, who doesn't carry a baton or pepper spray like his colleagues, went to the back of the building to stop people from entering, help anyone who needed it, and get information on the number of suspects inside. He said: "It was a horrific scene to really go into because I was so unprepared with the equipment I had." Sgt Gillespie and PC Holden identified the suspect at the top of the stairs, a bloodied knife in his hand, and walked towards him shoulder to shoulder. "I saw him, made eye contact with him, saw his facial expression, saw his body language and the way he moved himself into a position at the top of the stairs, showing us he had a knife," Sgt Gillespie said. "He was fronting us, like he was saying, 'I've got a knife, what are you going to do about it?' "And I think the second he realised he was looking at two people who weren't scared of him, who were going to attack him, all that bravery that he must have summoned up to attack defenceless children, he lost that straightaway, and he threw down the knife." In January, Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack, admitted the murders of seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King, aged six and Alice da Silva Aguiar, who was nine, as well 10 charges of attempted murder, as well as possessing terrorist material and production of the biological toxin, ricin. He was jailed for life with a minimum of 52 years - with the sentencing judge saying it was "highly likely" he would never be released. Dozens nominated for bravery awards The Merseyside trio are among 70 officers from around England and Wales who have been nominated for tonight's Police Federation national bravery awards. They include two sergeants from Sussex who swam to the rescue of a vulnerable teenager struggling to stay afloat at night off Brighton beach. Police with torches had located her in the sea fifty metres from the shore, but a lifeline they threw to her didn't reach. Sergeant Craig Lees said: "We could see that she was starting to struggle with the cold and tide, and she began to dip under the water. We knew we needed to do something, and that was that we needed to get into the water and swim out to her." His colleague and friend Sergeant Matthew Seekings said: "I don't think it's in the blood of any police officer to watch somebody at risk or somebody needing help and not do something. "When you're in the sea, it's pitch black, you don't even know where the bottom is, it's terrifying, and I can only imagine how the female was feeling." Battling their own fatigue, the two officers managed to get the girl to shore, where colleagues and paramedics were waiting to take over. In Devizes, Wiltshire, PC Nicola Crabbe was called to a town centre fight between two men, one of whom had a knife. 'Just saturated in blood' "They were grappling, and they were just saturated in blood," said PC Crabbe, who confronted the man she thought was the knifeman. "I was in the middle of the road when I grabbed hold of him, and there was a member of the public just there, and that's when he explained to me that I had the wrong person." Armed only with a baton and Pava pepper spray, she grappled with the suspect, trying to find his knife. She said: "At one point he grabbed my hair and kind of dragged me around a bit, so I Pava'd him which just had no effect at all." PC Crabbe managed to restrain the knifeman until colleagues arrived and arrested him. The full list of award winners will be announced on Thursday night during a dinner at a West London hotel.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Ban some foreigners from sickness benefits, Badenoch urges
Kemi Badenoch will call for foreign nationals to be barred from claiming disability and sickness benefits, as she sets out plans for tighter curbs on a speech on Thursday, the Tory leader will describe Britain's benefits bill as a "ticking time bomb" that could "collapse the economy".It comes after the party outlined some of its own proposals to reduce spending, after Labour largely gutted its own plan for benefits cuts after a backbench to bring in remaining government cuts to sickness benefits was approved by MPs on Wednesday evening. But other proposals, including changes to the eligibility criteria for disability benefits, have effectively been put on hold. The government announced plans to shrink welfare spending in March, warning the working-age welfare bill was set to rise by nearly £30bn by 2030 and reforms to the system were required to ensure it remained wanted to make it harder to claim personal independence payment (Pip), the main disability benefit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and make health-related top-ups for universal credit less generous. But ministers significantly watered down the cuts earlier this month after a huge rebellion from Labour MPs, all but wiping out savings estimated to be worth £5bn a year by the end of the decade. Plans to freeze the higher rate of universal credit for existing health-related claimants have been reversed, whilst all changes to the Pip system have been parked pending a government review into the assessment her speech on Thursday, Badenoch will accuse Labour of being "beholden to left-wing MPs" and "turning a blind eye" to rising benefit will also seek to create a dividing line with Reform UK over the two-child benefit cap, which Nigel Farage's party has pledged to scrap, branding him "Jeremy Corbyn with a pint and a cigarette"."On welfare he shows his true colours - promising unaffordable giveaways with no plan to fix the system," she is expected to add.A Labour spokesperson said "The Conservatives had 14 years to reform welfare - instead, they left the country with a broken system that holds people back and fails to support the most vulnerable."The party also warned that the Conservative proposal could see disabled British nationals living abroad being denied support if other countries decided to take a similar approach. Tory welfare proposals The Conservatives have not backed the government's legislation to deliver the changes, arguing its proposals do not go far have set out some plans of their own to shrink welfare spending in the form of amendments to the government's plans, which were defeated on include limiting access to Pips and the health-related part of universal credit to those with "less severe" mental health conditions, and preventing claimants from receiving payments without a face-to-face also say both benefits should only be paid to British citizens, with exceptions for those covered by international agreements, such as citizens from EU countries who have acquired settled status in the the moment, foreign nationals gain access to the welfare system when they are granted indefinite leave to remain or refugee status. Applicants for Pip generally need to have lived in Britain for at least two of the last three seekers are not allowed to apply for benefits, although they have access to taxpayer-funded accommodation and separate financial shadow minister Neil O'Brien has said he has obtained figures under freedom of information laws showing universal credit payments to households containing at least one foreign national stood at £941m a month as of working out the exact scale of payments to non-UK nationals specifically is complicated, because the Department for Work and Pensions does not provide a breakdown of claimants by immigration status and the department is due to publish the first such breakdown next week, and has committed to updates every three months thereafter. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to read top political analysis, gain insight from across the UK and stay up to speed with the big moments. It'll be delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
UK housing market steadies after tax hike downturn, RICS says
MANCHESTER, England, July 10 (Reuters) - A downturn in Britain's housing market that followed a tax hike on property transactions in April eased off in June, according to chartered surveyors who expect a broadly flat picture in the months ahead. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said on Thursday its measure of new buyer enquiries turned positive for first time since December and agreed sales also improved. But the change suggested a stable market rather than an upturn. A balance of house prices was steady at -7%, meaning more surveyors reporting prices fell than rose, with London and the south east of England among the regions with the biggest drops. The survey chimed with other signs of a subdued property market after buyers rushed earlier in the year to beat the March 31 expiry of a tax break for some home purchases. Earlier this week, mortgage lender Halifax said house prices were flat last month. An expected further drop in interest rates later this year is likely to help the market, analysts have said. "The UK residential market appears to be entering a more settled phase, with demand showing signs of stabilising following a period of volatility," said Tarrant Parsons, RICS head of market research and analysis. "The earlier distortion caused by transactions being brought forward ahead of the Stamp Duty changes now appears to have largely dissipated, allowing underlying trends to re-emerge." Parsons pointed to a modest increase in expectations for sales in the near term but he said economic uncertainty - at home and globally - could hit activity.
