A controversial MP is being probed by the Parliamentary sleaze watchdog over claims he used social media to 'facilitate racial abuse'.
James McMurdock, who has a conviction for assault and who left Reform over questions about Covid loans taken out by his companies, is under investigation for allegedly causing 'significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons'.
The independent Essex MP is accused of using X to start an 'N-tower' – a way of racially abusing another person without directly using a banned term by forming a chain of one letter comments that spell a word when read downwards.
He is said to have tweeted the letter 'N' in response to a post about a black journalist asking Reform UK leader Nigel Farage a question, with other social media users then posting further individual letters below it in order to spell out the racial slur.
Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who reported Mr McMurdock to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, told Times Radio: 'The tweet he made was an absolute disgrace, whether accidental or otherwise, and I think it's appalling a Member of Parliament should seek to denigrate a Westminster journalist simply for the colour of her skin.
