The committee rejected McMurdock’s denial that he posted a letter that began a racial slur, but could not establish his intention. It overruled the standards commissioner, and the former Reform UK MP faces no further action.
The UK Commons standards committee decided on 3 November 2026, that former Reform UK MP James McMurdock did not breach rule 11 by posting a letter online that began a racial slur. It overruled parliamentary standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg’s finding of a breach, and McMurdock faces no further action in the case.
The committee rejected McMurdock’s denial that he posted the letter from his phone, but said it could not be sure he intended to start the slur. The incident occurred in August 2025, and an investigation began soon afterward following a complaint from Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, The Guardian said.
The letter “N” appeared on X beneath a post showing Nigel Farage with a Black journalist. It led to what is known as an N-Tower: successive users post individual letters to spell a racial slur while evading moderation.
Rule 11 prohibits conduct that causes significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole or its members generally. The commissioner investigates complaints and submits findings to the committee, which normally accepts them and decides any punishment. Its disagreement in this case was unusual but not unprecedented.
Greenberg concluded that McMurdock posted the letter himself, though he said it was impossible to establish his intention. McMurdock told him that one of his children or an accidental post from his pocket must have produced the letter. He said he deleted it when alerted about an hour later.
Greenberg found that starting the N-Tower damaged the House’s reputation. He also said McMurdock had failed to correct the public record, allowing the impression that MPs condoned or incited racist abuse.
The committee said starting an N-Tower unintentionally would not breach the rule. It also said that even if McMurdock had intended to start one, the damage would have been to his own reputation rather than to MPs generally, so the rule’s threshold would not have been met.
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Lay committee member Mehmuda Mian concluded that, on the balance of probabilities, McMurdock intended to start the N-Tower. She cited the unlikely coincidence of that letter appearing under that post, the absence of another explanation for an intentional post and his response after he was alerted to its offensive implications.
Three other lay members dissented from the majority’s view that intentionally starting an N-Tower would not breach rule 11. The committee’s decision leaves McMurdock facing no further action in the parliamentary standards case.
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