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A Reform MP who was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend 18 years ago will not be suspended and would pass the party’s new vetting process, the party’s deputy leader has said.
Richard Tice has defended James McMurdock’s assault on his ex-girlfriend as a “mistake” and said his fellow MP was “doing brilliantly”.
Tice said McMurdock, who became Reform’s fifth MP after winning the Essex seat of South Basildon and East Thurrock by 98 votes at the general election, was someone who had “got things wrong, learned from it and has grown and succeeded”.
It comes days after a highly critical report from Whitehall’s spending watchdog said an “epidemic of violence against women and girls” in the UK was getting worse despite years of government promises and strategies.
The former investment banker did not publicly disclose his conviction for assault before being elected, and claimed he had “pushed” his partner when details were first disclosed this summer.
However, the Times later obtained information about his sentencing from the courts, which said he was detained for 21 days in a young offender institution for kicking the victim “around four times” in 2006 when he was a teenager.
Speaking after a party rally in north-west Essex, Tice said: “We’re a Christian nation and part of Christianity is about faith, it’s about trust but it’s also about forgiveness.
“We’re all sinners, we all make mistakes, and James by his own admission made a mistake, a bad mistake, but actually he did his time.
“So the system works. He was sentenced, he did his time, paid the price and now he’s shown a great example of someone who had a bad start with a bad mistake but look how well he’s done.
“And what that shows actually is, we can forgive and we learn from things, but people can succeed. And I think that’s really important.”
When asked whether McMurdock could ever face suspension for his conviction, Tice said: “The opposite. He’s doing brilliantly and he’s a shining example of someone who’s worked hard, got a lovely family.
“His wife’s pregnant literally as we speak, with a new baby on its way, and to be an MP is a great privilege, and we’re very proud of him and he’s doing a great job.
“[He’s] really really focused on his constituents and it’s another success story.
“Someone who made a mistake, got things wrong, learned from it and has grown and succeeded, taken a risk coming into politics and good on him. He’s put his head above the parapet and we’re very proud of him.”
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Shortly after he was elected, the mother of McMurdock’s former girlfriend told the Daily Mail that the new MP was “a monster” who had “left marks on her body”, saying: “It took two security guards to pull him off her.”
In response to her comments, McMurdock told the paper: “A generous person might call it a teenage indiscretion, but I do not expect everyone to be so kind. 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. Despite us both being very drunk, I handed myself into the police immediately and admitted my fault.”
Speaking at the rally on Friday, the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, conceded the vetting of candidates had been “probably quite near a catastrophe” in past elections, after several were dropped for making sexist remarks and using racial slurs.
But Tice said he was confident McMurdock would still pass Reform’s new vetting process, a system he has described as “getting better and better”.
