Richard Tice has been challenged for appearing to cast doubt on court documents that detailed how one of the party’s MPs was jailed for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend.
The Reform UK deputy leader defended James McMurdock, who was jailed 18 years ago for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend, saying the UK is a “Christian nation” that believes in “redemption”.
Speaking to the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, Mr Tice said he did not believe Mr McMurdock, the party’s MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, should be “doomed as a sinner forever”.
Mr McMurdock, a former investment banker, was convicted of assaulting his then girlfriend in 2006 while drunk outside a nightclub.
He spent 21 days in a young offenders’ institution after admitting to the attack.
Before he was elected as an MP, the investment banker had not publicly disclosed the conviction and when it emerged in July he had been jailed for attacking his girlfriend when he was 19 years old, he downplayed the incident as a “teenage indiscretion”.
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But further details of what happened during the incident emerged after The Times applied to the court for information from the official record, which showed he received the custodial sentence for “kicking” the victim “around four times”.
James McMurdock. Pic: PA
Mr Tice said his colleague was an example of someone who “had a bad issue at a very young age but has gone full circle”.
He said the UK was a “great Christian nation” and added: “Are you seriously saying that if someone makes a bad mistake in life, aged 19, that there’s no redemption they are doomed as a sinner forever? No.”
He went on: “The whole point of Christianity is a sense of if you’ve done something wrong, you pay your price. And at the end of that sentence, whatever it is, then, in a sense you’ve done your bit, you served your punishment, whatever it is.
“Isn’t it remarkable that an individual had I, you know, had a bad issue at a very young age but has gone full circle.
“Doesn’t it show, actually, to other young people that bad stuff can happen – you can make bad judgements, you can get things badly wrong. But many years later, actually you can you can do really well.
“He had a great job and end up as a member of parliament. I think that’s a good thing.”
MPs do not have to disclose previous convictions to the public when standing, with only people in prison at the time of the election for a sentence of more than a year barred.
McMurdock’s victim’s mother brought the incident to light a week after his election, saying he “left marks on her body” and “it took two security guards to pull him off her”.
When the allegations were revealed, McMurdock said the pair had argued and he had pushed her.
Challenged on whether there had been a “major discrepancy” between Mr McMurdock’s version of events and what had been reported, Mr Tice replied that his “understanding” of the incident was “different” to what The Times said had happened.
Pressed on what he believed happened, Mr Tice replied: “It actually doesn’t matter.”
“I’m trusting James,” he said.
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“He’s bang on the money and I think that what he says is right. He was there. The court wasn’t there. The Times weren’t there.
“The law is the law. The law ruled that he had transgressed and he was punished. He served his punishment.”
When the allegations emerged, Mr McMurdock told Sky News the incident was “the biggest regret of my life”.
He said: “While I absolutely deny the horrific details in this tale, there is one truth in it that I cannot, nor will not deny or hide from.
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“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 and apologetic.
“Despite us both being very drunk, I handed myself into the police immediately and admitted my fault. I was charged for what I did, not for what has been claimed, and I faced the consequences then and paid for my action in full.
“This is the biggest regret of my life and I wish I could go back in time and fix things.”