Farage Ally Resigns From Reform UK Over Business Probe
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Politics latest: ‘Real change is coming’: Corbyn says ‘discussions are ongoing’ about new left-wing party
Starmer’s win was the lowest vote share for a Labour party in over 70 years. But it was a victory on a scale that comes around but one every few decades. It was also the first time in 14 years that Labour had won a majority in the House of Commons. The result was a blow to the Tories, who had been in power since 1997. It is also a blow for the Labour Party, which has lost more than a third of its seats.
July 5 2024, 1pm: I remember the moment so clearly.
Keir Starmer stepped out of his sleek black car, grasped the hand of his wife Vic, dressed in Labour red, and walked towards a jubilant crowd of Labour staffers, activists and MPs waving union jacks and cheering a Labour prime minister into Downing Street for the first time in 14 years.
Starmer and his wife took an age to get to the big black door, as they embraced those who had helped them win this election – their children hidden in the crowd to watch their dad walk into Number 10.
Keir Starmer, not the easiest public speaker, came to the podium and told the millions watching this moment the “country has voted decisively for change, for national renewal”.
He spoke for the “weariness at the heat of the nation” and “the lack of trust” in our politicians as a “wound” that “can only be healed by actions not words”. He added: “This will take a while but the work of change begins immediately.”
That was a day in which this prime minister made history. His was a victory on a scale that comes around but one every few decades.
He won the largest majority in a quarter of a century and with it a massive opportunity to become one of the most consequential prime ministers of modern Britain – alongside the likes of Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair.
But within the win was a real challenge too.
Starmer’s was a loveless landslide, won on a lower share of the vote than Blair in all of his three victories and 6 percentage points lower than the 40% Jeremy Corbyn secured in the 2017 general election. It was the lowest vote share secured for a single party in over 70 years. Support for Labour was as shallow as it was wide.
Reform MP James McMurdock resigns party whip as he is investigated over £70,000 Covid bounce back loans
Reform MP James McMurdock has resigned the party whip. Comes as he faces an investigation into £70,000 worth of Covid bounce back loans he took out for businesses during the pandemic. The 39-year-old was previously jailed for attacking an ex-girlfriend. He 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 just 98 votes. But controversy soon followed after it emerged the politician from Essex had been jailed for assaulting his former girlfriend nearly 20 years ago while working as a barman. The Times newspaper has been approached with allegations by the MP. He has been accused of breaching parliamentary rules by failing to declare that he is a director of the Gym business on his register of interests. 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. He added: ‘I confirmed to the [Times] journalist that all my business dealings had always been conducted fully within the law’
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.
Spanish judge orders PM’s ex-ally to be remanded in custody in graft probe
A Spanish Supreme Court investigating judge ordered ex-senior ruling Socialist Party official Santos Cerdan to be held in pre-trial detention. Judge Leopoldo Puente is investigating allegations against Cerdan, former Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos and the latter’s aide Koldo Garcia that they received kickbacks for awarding public works contracts. Cerdan resigned earlier this month from his position as the Socialist Party’s third-ranking official and lawmaker. He denies the allegations and Abalos says he is innocent. The case is the latest and most serious in a series of scandals that have left Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez having to apologise and fend off calls for a snap election.
Item 1 of 3 Former Spanish Socialist lawmaker Santos Cerdan arrives to testify before a Supreme Court investigating judge in an alleged corruption case affecting the ruling Socialist Party in Madrid, Spain, June 30, 2025. REUTERS/Juan Medina
MADRID, June 30 (Reuters) – A Spanish Supreme Court investigating judge ordered ex-senior ruling Socialist Party official Santos Cerdan to be held in pre-trial detention on Monday, in a corruption inquiry that could destabilise Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority government.
The Cerdan case is the latest and most serious in a series of scandals that have left Sanchez having to apologise and fend off calls from opponents for a snap election.
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Judge Leopoldo Puente is investigating allegations against Cerdan, former Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos and the latter’s aide Koldo Garcia that they received kickbacks for awarding public works contracts.
Cerdan, who resigned earlier this month from his position as the Socialist Party’s third-ranking official and lawmaker, denies the allegations. Both Abalos and Garcia say they are innocent.
His resignation followed a statement from Puente citing “strong evidence” of Cerdan’s possible involvement in the “improper awarding” of contracts.
Puente said in a court document seen by Reuters that the former official could face charges including membership of a criminal organization, bribery and influence peddling.
The judge denied bail for Cerdan, citing concerns he might destroy or hide evidence, as his home has not yet been searched. Puente also noted a flight risk.
The case is based on recordings spanning years, seized from Garcia’s home, which Puente said appeared to be authentic despite the defendants arguing that their voices had been manipulated. The judge said it appeared that Cerdan was the leader.
Sanchez on Monday defended his Socialist Party’s handling of the corruption allegations against Cerdan, saying that it had acted decisively by asking him to resign.
“Justice must determine the responsibilities that Santos Cerdan may have,” Sanchez told reporters during a summit in Seville.
Opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo reiterated on X that Sanchez should resign and call a snap election.
Reporting by Emma Pinedo; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Alex Richardson
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Reform MP James McMurdock resigns whip over allegations of business impropriety
James McMurdock will sit as an independent while a probe takes place. Allegations that he borrowed £70,000 under the government’s Bounce Back loans scheme during the pandemic in 2020. The 39-year-old, who has previously worked for Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, specialising in energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing, ran his campaign with only the help of his parents. Labour MP Jon Pearce wrote to parliament’s sleaze watchdog demanding an investigation. It leaves Farage’s insurgent right-wing party again with just four MPs, with Reform previously suspending Rupert Lowe for criticising the arch-Brexiteer’s leadership. It comes just weeks after Zufia Yusuf sensationally quit as head of Reform, only to return to the fold 48 hours later. Mr McMurdocks has apologised and said the incident is the “biggest regret of his life’. He has previously been jailed for assaulting a woman. He was in a young offenders’ institution for four times for kicking the victim around.
James McMurdock will sit as an independent while a probe takes place over the allegations, which he said will emerge in the press this weekend.
Reform’s chief whip Lee Anderson said: “At Reform UK, we take these matters very seriously and James has agreed to cooperate in full with any investigation.”
It quickly emerged that Mr McMurdock had suspended himself after The Sunday Times approached him with allegations that he borrowed £70,000 under the government’s Bounce Back loans scheme during the pandemic in 2020.
The newspaper reported that he did so through two companies he owned, JAM Financial Limited and Gym Live Health and Fitness Limited.
The former had no employees and negligible assets, it said, and took out a £50,000 loan in 2020, the maximum amount available. It would have had to have at least £200,000 in turnover to receive the loan.
He resigned as a director and transferred his shares to his mother in 2021, the Times reported.
The second company was dormant until 2020, but in 2021 borrowed £20,000 under the scheme, which would have required a turnover of £100,000.
Mr McMurdock may have also fallen foul of parliamentary rules by not declaring his directorships of the companies in his register of interests. Labour MP Jon Pearce wrote to parliament’s sleaze watchdog on Saturday demanding an investigation.
Commenting on the story, Mr McMurdock told the Times to “be very, very careful” and said “a technical expert” would be needed to make sense of the matters, but did not say why he took out the loans.
Mr McMurdock then said he asked for the whip to be suspended as a “precautionary measure” and “for the protection of Reform UK”.
He 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.”
Mr Anderson’s statement said: “I have today received a call from James McMurdock, who has advised me, as chief whip, that he 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.”
Labour sought to stick the boot in, with party chairman Ellie Reeves demanding to know whether Mr Farage thinks Mr McMurdock is still fit to be an MP.
She said: “Nigel Farage and Reform UK owe the public an urgent answer about the financial conduct of Mr McMurdock, who has previously been jailed for assaulting a woman. The public deserve to know about the proper use of public funds by Reform UK MPs given their new councils claim to be conducting inquiries into ‘government efficiency’.”
It leaves Farage’s insurgent right-wing party again with just four MPs, with Reform previously suspending Rupert Lowe for criticising the arch-Brexiteer’s leadership.
The suspension comes just one year after Mr McMurdock entered parliament almost by accident, having agreed to stand in the general election as a so-called paper candidate.
He won his South Basildon and East Thurrock seat by 98 votes, having given up a high-paying job at a financial firm in the City of London to become an MP. The 39-year-old, who has previously worked for Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, specialising in energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing, ran his campaign with only the help of his parents.
But the unexpected election of Mr McMurdock created a major headache for Mr Farage, as it emerged months later that he had once been jailed for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend.
After initially admitting to having “pushed” his partner, court records showed he was in fact detained in a young offenders’ institution for 21 days for kicking the victim around four times, in an incident which took place in 2006. Mr McMurdock pleaded guilty to assault by beating, and the “serious nature of the offence” meant the sentence was not suspended.
He has apologised and said the incident is the “biggest regret” of his life.
Mr McMurdock’s suspension plunges Reform into chaos yet again, with the party having faced repeated bouts of infighting since the general election.
It comes just weeks after chair Zia Yusuf sensationally quit, only to return to the fold 48 hours later as head of Reform’s cost-cutting Doge unit, modelled after Elon Musk’s former role in the Trump administration.
That came after ex-Reform MP Mr Lowe left the party to set up his own right-wing challenger, branding Mr Farage a “viper” after an inquiry into allegations he made “verbal threats” against Mr Yusuf.
Mr Lowe said he was ashamed to have represented the party and launched an extraordinary attack on its leader.
Rupert Lowe was suspended after a clash with Nigel Farage (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
“Nigel Farage must never be prime minister,” he said in a statement.
Reform has faced chaos in its lower ranks as well after huge success in May’s local elections. After taking control of 10 councils, with hundreds of councillors across the country, a series of its representatives quit within weeks, with some turning on Reform and Mr Farage.
One councillor resigned from Reform just days after being elected, having promised to defect from the party anyway after the local elections. Donna Edmunds called for Mr Lowe to establish a challenger party on the right of Reform and also said Mr Farage “must never be prime minister”.
But the chaos does not appear to have slowed Reform’s rise in the polls, with a major YouGov poll recently indicating Mr Farage would win the most seats by far if an election were held today.
YouGov said Reform would jump from having just five MPs to 271, with Mr Farage poised to form a minority government.
Mr McMurdock has been contacted for comment.
Ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe brands Nigel Farage ‘a coward and a viper’ after criminal probe over alleged party chairman bust-up is dropped
Rupert Lowe was suspended from Nigel Farage’s party in March amid a deepening civil war and allegations about his conduct. Crown Prosecution Service said today that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a case against the Great Yarmouth MP. Mr Lowe, who has always denied any wrongdoing, today said he had been the victim of a ‘brutal smear campaign’ He is taking his own legal action against Mr Farage and the party over the way he was removed from the party. ‘This was not normal political infighting. It was a sinister attempt to weaponise the criminal justice system against me – putting not just my political future, but my liberty at risk,’ he said.
The Crown Prosecution Service said today that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a case against the Great Yarmouth MP over a bust-up he was alleged to have had with chairman Zia Yusuf.
Mr Lowe, who now sits as an independent, was suspended from Nigel Farage’s party in March amid a deepening civil war and allegations about his conduct.
Mr Lowe, who has always denied any wrongdoing, today said he had been the victim of a ‘brutal smear campaign’ after the case was dropped.
He is taking his own legal action against Mr Farage and the party over the way he was removed.
‘This was not normal political infighting. It was a sinister attempt to weaponise the criminal justice system against me – putting not just my political future, but my liberty at risk,’ he said in a statement.
‘All because I dared to raise constructive criticisms of Nigel Farage, stood firm on deporting illegal migrants, and pushed for Reform to be run democratically – not as a vehicle to stroke one man’s ego.’
The Crown Prosecution Service said today that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a case against The Great Yarmouth MP.
Mr Lowe was suspended from Nigel Farage’s party in March amid a deepening civil war and allegations about his conduct towards Zia Yusuf, which he denies.
Today Mr Lowe said he had been targeted ‘because I dared to raise constructive criticisms of Nigel Farage, stood firm on deporting illegal migrants, and pushed for Reform to be run democratically – not as a vehicle to stroke one man’s ego’
He added: ‘For the good of our country, Nigel Farage must never be Prime Minister. To the millions of decent Reform supporters – you must do what you believe is right. I, personally, could not remain in an organisation led by such men.’
Malcolm McHaffie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime Division, said: ‘Following a thorough and detailed review of the evidence in relation to an allegation of threats, we have decided that no criminal charges should be brought against a sitting MP.
‘Having considered a number of witness statements, we have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.
‘The Crown Prosecution Service’s function is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent, and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for a criminal court to consider. Based on the careful consideration of this evidence, we have decided that our legal test for a criminal prosecution has not been met.’
The Crown Prosecution Service added that the case was subject to the Victim’s Right to Review scheme which allows alleged victims to ask for the decision not to prosecute to be reviewed.