Reform UK is “really enthusiastically implementing a policy of one in, one out”, the Commons leader has said, after James McMurdock resigned the party whip.
Lucy Powell said she did not expect Nigel Farage’s party to “welcome” efforts to set up a one in, one out English Channel migration deal with France during Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the UK.
“But when it comes to their own party, they’re already really enthusiastically implementing a policy of one in, one out,” Ms Powell told the Commons.
Mr McMurdock left Reform UK after the Sunday Times published a story on Saturday which alleged two businesses connected to the South Basildon and East Thurrock MP took out Covid-19 loans totalling £70,000 during the pandemic, one of which had no employees.
The now-independent MP has insisted that all of his 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”.
Since last year’s general election, Reform has also lost Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe from among its ranks but gained Runcorn and Helsby constituency from Labour in a by-election.
Ms Powell, who did not name Mr McMurdock, told the Commons: “Even though they’ve only got a group of a handful of MPs, their chief whip seems to have had a busier week than ours. I mean, that’s kind of saying something.”
Turning to the wider party, she said: “The bigger story for Reform this week is they really are becoming the party of sleaze and scandal, and dud and dodgy personnel.
“It’s not really the right moment, I don’t think, to start ditching your vetting procedures, don’t you think?”
The Cabinet minister also criticised Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who is set to outline her party’s welfare policy on Thursday.
“I did notice, though, that the leader of the Opposition today is giving a speech, talking about the ticking time bomb that’s been left,” Ms Powell said.
“Too right it’s a ticking time bomb – it’s their ticking time bomb and we all know that they left mines all over the place, and we’re coming along having to sweep them out.”
Conservative shadow Commons leader Jesse Norman had earlier said Labour had lost the backing on “even supportive British newspapers”, and told MPs: “For this Government, of course, the past week marks an anniversary of a somewhat less glorious and happy kind – its first full year in office.”
Referring to a resident doctors walkout led by the British Medical Association (BMA) over a bid for “pay restoration”, he told MPs: “As the wildly overrated Aneurin Bevan said he had done in 1948, the present Secretary of State (Wes Streeting) – and I’m quoting Bevan’s words in relation to the GPs in 1948 – that he had ‘stuffed their mouths with gold and they are already coming back for more’.”
Ms Powell said the Government had already “delivered a very generous pay settlement”, but warned plans for a walkout were “of course extremely disappointing and strike action that we don’t think is at all necessary, because when the NHS is finally moving in the right direction, these strikes will put that recovery at risk, affecting patients and letting down our collective obligations to those that we’re here to serve”.
