By David Wilcock Editor
Nigel Farage today ducked questions about an ex-Reform MP being investigated over Covid loans worth £70,000 – as he warned the party’s cohort of councillors to behave ‘with integrity’.
Mr Farage made a visit to Kent days after James McMurdock resigned the party whip amid allegations that he took out government loans during the Covid pandemic for businesses with no employees.
The MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock said ‘all’ of his ‘business dealings’ complied with regulations, hours before the Sunday Times published a story alleging two businesses connected to him took out loans totalling £70,000.
His decision to surrender the whip means Reform has gone from having five to four MPs for the second time in a year since the general election.
Appearing alongside the Reform leader of Kent County Council Mr Farage did not answer when asked by reporters whether the allegations faced by Mr McMurdock were an embarrassment for his party.
‘Let’s find out the truth, I know as much about this right now as you do.’ said Mr Farage.
He added that he would be heading to Westminster later on Monday to find out more about the situation.
It also comes as Reform faces claims it is spreading ‘chaos and confusion’ in councils across the UK that it controls.
Addressing KCC Reform councillors on the steps inside County Hall, Mr Farage said: ‘Behaving with integrity is a responsibility upon all of you, although that doesn’t mean you all have to become stuffed shirts or anything like that.
‘You are holders of public office you are responsible and how we behave matters.’
Later, he told the PA news agency: ‘Yes I think, I think that when you become elected at any level you have a responsibility,
‘I’m not asking for stuffed shirts, I’m not asking for boring people. I’m just saying think, think to all of these people here who were basically in ‘civvy street’ in political terms before May 1, just think before you act.’
Mr Farage was keen to distance himself from the absence of Reform candidate vetting processes for the 2024 general election, and said he ‘can’t apologise’ for it.
He said: ‘I came in, I inherited this situation where hundreds of candidates who stood in the last general election had not gone through a vetting process.
‘I said on July 5, the day after the election last year, that we would now professionalise.
‘We put 1,630 candidates into the field on May 1, more than any other party with very, very few rows or arguments – so the vetting process worked for this year, I can’t apologise for what happened before.’
It was announced on Saturday that Mr 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 Sunday Times newspaper.
It alleged he 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.
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.
He added on X on Saturday: ‘I confirmed to the [Sunday 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.