James McMurdock

Well David is absolutely right, this has ruined my life, but I absolutely wouldn’t have it any other way so good afternoon conference, it is an unbelievable privilege to be standing here today and I want to thank all of you genuinely for making the effort to be here, I really appreciate it.

Knowing some of my family is in the audience as well makes this that little bit more special but I do have to warn you if there’s any heckling it’s almost definitely coming from there! Given virtually all of you will have never heard of me just a couple of weeks ago let me just take a second to introduce myself, my name is James McMurdock and I am the MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock. So why did I get involved with politics and what made me stand for Reform? Well, unfortunately like many of you I feel like Great Britain is on the wrong path and politics is broken.

Before learning more about Reform I had genuinely reached the stage where I was going to go down to the polling station and deliberately spoil my ballot I was so frustrated with the Conservatives poor record of accountability and delivery and having read the Labour manifesto though I became even more frustrated with what they were offering so what to do?

Well as fate would have it as I was pondering this very question I saw an interview with Richard Tice speaking about the things Reform were offering; putting money back in the pockets of Working Families, getting the country’s economy moving again, energy and defence policies that would offer stability to our country, conversations over taboo topics like immigration finally being had rather than just swept under the rug, the more I looked the more I thought genuinely this was a party I could stand behind and like everyone here it started with a simple £25 membership fee.

I genuinely thought to myself go on guys let the establishment have it, do what you can, little did I know that £25 would go a lot further than I was expecting! From then time move very quickly. On the 4th of May I was invited to interview, on the 4th of June I was invited to stand and 10 days later I was invited to be a parliamentary candidate for Reform UK. Campaigning was a new challenge but thanks to some fantastic volunteers who stepped forward purely out of the goodness of their heart we hit the ground running so very quickly a special thank you to; Angela, Becky, Colin, Glenn, Gordon, Holly, Linda, Michelle, Mick, Nick, Robert, Sara, Sarah, I know you’re in the audience as well and Steve your support made all the difference.

These were people who’d never met me before, I had no political history they just stepped forward to help. Genuinely of course, not everything went smoothly, I left the imprint off 20,000 leaflets I’d ordered, what’s worse than one mistake is 20,000, so that small but mandatory detail meant my wonderful wife and I had to spend many evenings manually stamping it on, I can honestly still hear that kadunk in my dreams! So, at the start of my campaign, I told myself that everyone I pass in the street I have to speak to, I thought that was the fairest way of honing myself and getting a feel for how things were out there.

As you can imagine and in the real world most people are very supportive, in fact the vast majority were my biggest concern though was the second most common group those people who were simply giving up on politics and who could blame them? Just a month or so earlier I felt the very same frustration so as I reached more people honestly and seriously there were very few awkward moments but one experience does stand out. A beautiful home, approached it full of joy and out came the grumpiest man you’d ever met in your life.

Okay, that’s how it’s going to be, but onto the next house, a gentleman washing his car, his mom coming out she said we’re voting Reform, nobody likes him and that was an honest experience, so it was in stark contrast to the reception I just received but it did boost my spirits, it went to show that support was never that far away.

A blink of a light later and it was election day while the major news outlets repeatedly banging the drum for Labour including in my area of South Basildon and East Thurrock that had not been my lived experience, that had not been the impression I’d got from talking to people on the streets as I canvassed.

The enthusiasm just simply wasn’t there for any of the other parties and I thought to myself, maybe just maybe, there might be an upset. To add to that sense a single poll from Britain Elects had been released the day before this had put Reform in the lead in my seat and again I thought maybe, just maybe.

Well, we did it, it took 15 hours and three recounts before it was a made official but Reform had its fifth MP and while I recognized what a tremendous experience this is, I knew it was just the start of the hard work, not the end and while I absolutely recognize it’s a privilege, I know this must be taken extremely seriously. So, two months on what have I done? How have I used my time?

Well, when the government announced plans to release 5,500 criminals back onto our streets I was appalled, I did my research and I made a discovery there are 10,000 foreign Nationals in our jails, those same criminals come with an annual cost to the taxpayer of half a billion pound.

I’ve been here two months; it shouldn’t be that easy for me to find things like this and mean that I wrote to the minister demanding they deport the foreign Nationals that would save us money and keep our streets safe. Like the rest of my Reform colleagues I voted to protect the winter fuel allowance, again I did my research and I found we had increased our foreign aid budget by £1.4 billion shock what’s more shocking this same amount as the proposed savings from the winter fuel payment £1.4 billion.

I wrote to the chancellor before the vote demanding we prioritize our pensioners over foreign aid. Labour decided the foreign aid budget was more important, I do not agree but now you have a choice, there is a party that will represent you and stand up for common sense. Of course, for me the issues are local too the low ATMs Crossing will be the third largest infrastructure project in the UK and is squarely on my patch, one of you this is a £10 billion mega project per mile it is more expensive than HS2, not a single brick has been laid and in the last 10 years they have spent three billion on it.

The Conservatives responsibility to make a final decision and now we’re at the mercy of Labour, I’ve worked with local residents there, I’ve spoken to local action groups, I’ve looked at everything in detail and I’ve made it very clear where I stand, there has to be some accountability, it’s our money it’s that simple, we all know it, it’s our money Thurrock Council in my constituency was embroiled in an investment Scandal £1.5 billion lost.

That is 40% of their operating budget, politics is broken Thurrock deserves better, Great Britain deserves better and Reform is here to deliver it, so here’s a little bit of good news, the fight is tough but we have shown it possible to beat the establishment.

If you vote Reform you get real skilled and honest people here to represent you, mark my words there are people in this very room who will be Reform MPs alongside me in 2029, the momentum is absolutely on our side, what we have achieved in such a short period of time is nothing less than extraordinary, Nigel or as I should call him The Honourable member for Clacton and Richard The Honourable member for Boston and Skegness are the people to lead us into Downing street.

We will then be ready to welcome Nigel Farage not just as a member of parliament, but as the Prime Minister. Thank you very much, thank you thank you, thank you.