'Criminal in our midst': Government urged to ban those convicted of violence against women from running as MPs

9 January 2025, 19:59 | Updated: 9 January 2025, 20:47

A Tory MP has urged the Government to ban people convicted of violence against women from running for Parliament, referring to a Reform UK member as the "convicted criminal already in our midst".

During a debate in the Commons on violence against women and girls, Conservative Ben Obese-Jecty described the details of Reform's James McMurdock's assault on his then-girlfriend.

Mr McMurdock did not publicly disclose his conviction prior to being elected and claimed he had "pushed" his partner when details were first revealed this summer.

However, The Times later obtained information about his sentencing from the courts, which said he was locked up for 21 days in a young offenders' institute for kicking the victim "around four times" in 2006 when he was a teenager.

Mr Obese-Jecty said he believes "in the rehabilitation of offenders", but that "being sentenced for such a heinous crime means that you forfeit some of the privileges those of us who have never attacked a woman are granted. "One such privilege is being a member of Parliament."

He told the Commons: "The presence of a member of Parliament with a conviction for violently assaulting a woman has never been acknowledged in this House, let alone addressed.

"Any debate in this House on the subject of violence against women and girls should address the convicted criminal already in our midst.

"As this Government shapes its legislative agenda, I would ask the minister to consider whether it's time to introduce legislation that bars those who have served a custodial sentence for violence against women and girls from standing as a member of Parliament."

Mr Obese-Jecty began his contribution by highlighting the case of a woman who was "violently attacked outside a nightclub" by a man who was her boyfriend at the time.

He said: "By his own admission, the young man said he only pushed her and she fell to the ground and was hurt. Court records subsequently revealed that he repeatedly kicked her around four times.

"It was reported in The Daily Mail that the attack was only stopped when two doormen dragged the attacker away from the young woman and then called the police. The man was arrested and charged with assault.

"The Times reported that he initially denied the charge, maintaining his innocence, meaning both his victim and witnesses were forced to relive the attack by giving statements to the police ahead of going to trial.

The young woman herself was left with both injuries and lasting mental scars."

Only after telling members the details of Mr McMurdock's assault did Mr Obese-Jecty add: "As of July, her attacker now sits on these green benches as a Member of Parliament."

Mr Obese-Jecty said the member for South Basildon and East Thurrock "maintains the assault was nothing more than an argument followed by a push" but that "the judge awarded a custodial sentence, stating that the sentence was not suspended in light of the serious nature of the offence".

He added: "On-the-record comments from the party leader and the party spokesman appeared to completely contradict one another on what was known.

"The Reform Party appeared to have knowingly stood a candidate with a conviction for attacking a woman, a party that doesn't believe that violence against women and girls should be taken seriously if the perpetrator is one of their own."

The Tory MP for Huntingdon further said Reform need to answer questions as to what the party "knew about this conviction, what they were told when they were told it, and what they chose to disclose in subsequent statements to the media".

Members from both opposition and Government benches highlighted the absence of Reform MPs for the debate on violence against women and girls, in contrast to their involvement in sessions earlier in the week where they called for a national inquiry into sexual exploitation.

Liberal Democrat MP for Tewkesbury Cameron Thomas said labelling abusers as "monsters" obscures "an uncomfortable truth that they are often fathers and brothers".

He said: "They are often our work colleagues, and I note the absence today of the member for South Basildon and East Thurrock and his enablers."

Labour MP for Southend West and Leigh, David Burton-Sampson expressed his "disappointment that some seem to pick and choose which type of abuse they wish to champion - abuse is not a political football, Reform", while his party colleague Emily Darlington (Milton Keynes Central) said: "Not a single Reform MP shows how much they care."

A Reform UK spokesman said: "James McMurdock's conviction and time in a young offenders' institute is a matter of public record and a spent conviction.

"James is ashamed of his past but his life since that time is a story of redemption. He has gone on to form a successful family and business life, now indeed in politics too.

"We hope that other young men who make bad mistakes in early life can learn from James that their lives can turn around."

'Nothing short of a national scandal'

Earlier, Alex Davies-Jones said Britain had become used to statistics that showed that a woman is killed by a man every three days, on average.

Speaking in the Commons during a debate on tackling violence against women and girls, the justice minister said: "This rarely makes the headlines. Their deaths have become normalised, and as a society we have, I think, become desensitised. It is nothing short of a national scandal.

"Every woman lost is a daughter, a mother, a friend, her life cut brutally short. They are not statistics to me, nor this Government. Their lives matter and we are determined to act.

"We will use every tool at our disposal to target perpetrators, protect victims and address the causes of this appalling abuse and violence."

Ms Davies-Jones said abusive behaviour needed to stop, and said society needed to stop men being attracted to toxic masculinity.

She said: "We need to understand why boys and young men are being drawn the rabbit hole of toxic masculinity, which so often fuels these crimes, and critically, how can we step in, support them, and steer them away from it?"

She said the Government would introduce reforms to the justice system, including supporting victims of rape where cases are going through the legal system.

"This Government is determined to do better, justice must be swifter, and we will work with the judiciary to fasttrack rape cases through courts."

The extent of violence against women and girls is "intolerable", a Government minister has said, as she branded the problem a national emergency.

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said women had been let down by the system and that women and girls should be free to live their lives without violence, abuse and harassment.

She said: "The scale of violence against women in this country is intolerable, a national emergency, so I welcome the opportunity for this house to unite and debate it today.

"Tackling violence against women and girls in all its forms is a top priority for this Government, and central to our wider mission to make this country's streets safer."

Ms Davies-Jones went on condemn threats against her ministerial colleague Jess Phillips. "They are absolutely abhorrent," she said. "They demonstrate all too clearly the way that some men view women's place in the world."

She added: "We will continue to speak out, we will not be silenced."