Who is James McMurdock? The ex-Reform MP who suspended himself

James McMurdock – one of the five Reform UK MPs elected last July, when he won the South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency by just 98 votes – hasn’t had a good first year in parliament.

Things got off to a bad start when, shortly after the election, McMurdock was revealed to have embellished his CV and been jailed for assaulting his girlfriend 18 years earlier. 

And things certainly haven’t gotten any better for the 39-year-old. Almost one year after the election, on 3 July McMurdock received a phone call from the Sunday Times journalist Gabriel Pogrund, in which serious allegations about the propriety of his business dealings were put to him. 

Two days later, McMurdock said, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), that he had asked to have the Reform whip “suspended temporarily” as a “precautionary measure”. Three days after that he announced he would now “continue [his] parliamentary career as an independent MP”.

Here’s what’s been revealed about McMurdock during his first year in parliament:

The embellished CV

“My professional journey has included roles at prestigious institutions such as Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, and Lehman Brothers,” boasted McMurdock’s biography on Reform’s website during last year’s election campaign. 

Just over a week after the election, however, on 13 July 2024 Byline Times reported that all was not perhaps as it seemed. 

Not only did his stint at Goldman Sachs last just three months in 2011, but Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008 when McMurdock would have been entering his second year at university in Sussex. 

As well as that, McMurdock’s LinkedIn account details how, before being elected, he worked for the bank Standard Chartered as a ‘Senior Associate’ from 2016 to July 2024. 

But a former colleague of McMurdock’s at the bank accused him of misrepresenting his work there.

According to a further Byline Times article on 17 July 2024, the colleague said that, in fact, McMurdock worked as “a deal administrator, which is a junior role”. In this job, McMurdock handled routine administrative tasks for already agreed loans, according to the colleague. 

“It makes me angry the way he has represented himself here,” the colleague told Byline Times, adding: “I wouldn’t trust him with anything important. He’s very much a salesperson for himself.”

The assault conviction

Even more serious than his apparently exaggerated CV, is the fact that McMurdock was jailed for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend when he was 19, as MailOnline revealed on 12 July 2024.

The Mail detailed how McMurdock launched the alcohol-fueled attack on his victim outside a nightclub, before denying any wrongdoing and then eventually pleading guilty to one charge of assault at Chelmsford Crown Court.

“McMurdock is a monster,” the mother of his former girlfriend told the Mail, adding: “He left marks on her body. It took two security guards to pull him off her. There is no way he should be an MP in the House of Commons representing people.”

McMurdock spent 21 days in a young offenders’ institution as a result of the attack.

In response to the revelation, McMurdock described the incident as “the biggest regret of my life”, but added that he “absolutely” denied “the horrific details in this tale”, explaining: “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 us both being very drunk, I handed myself into the police immediately and admitted my fault,” the MP went on.

McMurdock’s side of the story was somewhat contradicted, however, by the official record of his conviction, obtained by the Times last November.

Rather than McMurdock having only pushed his girlfriend, the reason given for his sentence in the official record was: “Kicking to victim on around four times.”

The record noted that his “sentence was not suspended in light of the serious nature of the offence” and explained that there was “limited credit for guilty plea” which was “entered late”.

The dodgy Covid loans

On 5 July, just over a year after the election, the Sunday Times revealed that two businesses owned by McMurdock took out loans totalling £70,000 during the pandemic. 

According to the newspaper, McMurdock’s companies borrowed this money in 2020, under the government’s Bounce Back loans scheme, designed to support businesses which were losing revenue as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

One of the companies – Gym Live Health and Fitness Limited – was dormant until January 2020, before it borrowed £20,000, which would have required a turnover of £80,000. 

The other company – JAM Financial Limited – had few assets and no employees before the pandemic, but borrowed £50,000 in 2020, which would have required a turnover of £200,000.

Strangely, neither company filed accounts after the loans, meaning they’re in breach of the Companies Act and it is impossible to tell whether they had the necessary turnover for the loans they claimed.  

“I have asked to have the whip suspended temporarily”

Thirteen minutes before the Sunday Times’ story was published, McMurdock took to X (formerly Twitter) to declare that “all my business dealings [have] always been conducted fully within the law and in compliance with all regulations” and announce: “As a precautionary measure, and for the protection of Reform UK, I have asked to have the whip suspended temporarily.”

Reform’s chief whip Lee Anderson subsequently confirmed McMurdock “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”.

While he might have been hoping for a swift return, on 8 July McMurdock said he’d taken “specialist legal advice” and had now “decided to continue my parliamentary career as an independent MP”. 

This is yet another blow for Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage.

While the party won five seats in last year’s general election, its number of parliamentarians went down to four in March when Rupert Lowe was suspended by Farage’s party over bullying allegations – two days after Lowe had called Reform “a protest party led by the Messiah”.

The victory of Reform candidate Sarah Pochin in the Runcorn byelection, on 1 May, meant the party’s tally of MPs went back up to five. 

This latest debacle means the number of Reform MPs is now back down to four. The party only has itself to blame, given Farage’s admission that McMurdock wasn’t even vetted as a candidate.