A Reform MP, James McMurdock, has given up the party whip while he is investigated over allegations about his business conduct during the coronavirus pandemic.
Lee Anderson, the party’s chief whip, made the announcement on Saturday, saying it related to accusations in the Sunday Times over government loans he is alleged to have taken out during the Covid pandemic.
The report claims McMurdock took out £70,000 in loans in 2020, which it said were from the government’s Bounce Back scheme in 2020. It says he borrowed £50,000 for one business, JAM Financial Ltd, which had no employees and negligible assets until the Covid pandemic.
For a firm to have been eligible for the loan, it would have needed to report a turnover of at least £200,000. In 2021 McMurdock is said to have resigned as a director from the company, transferring his shares to Yvonne Allen.
Another company McMurdock owned, Gym Live Health and Fitness Limited, is said to have borrowed £20,000. It would have required a turnover of £100,000 under the Bounce Back scheme.
It too had no employees according to the latest registered accounts available on Companies House, and had nominal assets until the Covid pandemic.
As a result, the companies were due to be struck off the register at Companies House. Yet on the same day in February 2023, the process of suspending both companies was halted after the regulator had an objection from a third party.
McMurdock told the Sunday Times to be “very, very careful”, when approached for comment and said a “technical expert” would be necessary to understand the issue. He repeatedly refused to say why he took out the loans, the newspaper reported.
The report was pre-empted by an announcement from Anderson, who posted a statement on X saying: “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.”
After resigning the Reform UK whip, pending an investigation, McMurdock said, in a statement on X, that he asked for the whip to be suspended as a “precautionary measure” and “for the protection of Reform UK”.
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Referring to a conversation with a journalist, the MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock added: “I confirmed to the 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.”
McMurdock, 39, was a political unknown when he won the Essex seat by 98 votes in last year’s general election.
He subsequently admitted to having been convicted of assaulting his girlfriend at the age of 18. Reform said he was someone who had “got things wrong, learned from it and has grown and succeeded”.
The news will be a blow to Nigel Farage who had already lost Rupert Lowe, one of the party’s five MPs elected in 2024, after a row. Since then, the party has gained Sarah Pochin in a byelection.