Bankrupt Firm of Reform UK’s Waste-Busting Local Government Chief Owes Taxpayer £36,000

Reform UK’s Director of Local Government declared a company he owned insolvent two months before the local elections, leaving hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of unpaid debts – including a £31,000 Covid Bounce Back Loan.

Cllr Jaymey McIvor, who now represents Ongar in Epping Forrest (Essex), became Reform UK’s first county councillor last year after being expelled by the Conservative Party over allegations that he sent an “unsolicited picture of his genitals”. 

He is an up-and-coming figure in Reform UK, regularly representing the party on TV and speaking at protests against an asylum seeker hotel in Epping. He was recently appointed as Reform’s national “Director of Local Government”. 

But in March this year, Infinitus Group, a Florist run by Cllr McIvor with him as the sole director, entered liquidation after the firm voted to voluntarily wind itself up. 

A liquidators report shows that Infinitus owes £141,025 to creditors. This includes £42,370 to “trade creditors”, £31,000 of a Covid Bounce Back Loan and £5,154 owed to HMRC in corporation tax. 

McIvor founded the company in 2018 and remained director until October 2020. He returned as director in June 2021. 

The emergency Bounce Back Loans are state backed, leaving taxpayers footing the bill if companies holding the loans default on their debts. 

The scheme is credited with saving thousands of businesses during the pandemic. The latest government figures show that £11.9 billion has been paid by the government to banks to cover Bounce Back Loans. But officials estimated in 2021 that nearly 40% are unlikely to be repaid. A further £1.94 billion worth of the loans have been flagged as suspected fraud. 

Under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme rules, companies could receive up to 25% of their annual turnover in loans, or no more than £50,000. The scheme ran until 31 March 2021. To receive £31,000 in a Bounce Back Loan, Infinitus would have to have had a turnover of £124,000 the previous year. 

However, the unaudited financial statements filed on Companies House for the year ending November 2019 show the company making a loss of £-367 with total assets of £7,635 and liabilities of £8,002. It is not clear if the firm had the required £124,000 turnover needed for a £31,00 Bounce Back Loan. 

Further unaudited financial statements for the year 2020 show that the company registered a profit of just £1,621, while holding £51,335 in “bank loans and overdrafts”.

The company appears not to have filed any accounts with Companies House since 2021.  It is possible that a compulsory strike off order was withdrawn in order for creditors – including the taxpayer – to claw back any possible debts.. 

In this position at Reform UK, McIvor has railed against waste of taxpayers’ money and promoted Reform’s Department of Local Government Efficiency or DOLGE, named after the DOGE unit formerly headed by Elon Musk in the US. 

In a speech at the Local Government Association in July McIvor said that “local government budgeting has been a disaster”. He added that many of the councils Reform controls “have been left in a terrible state with debt interest payments alone on a daily basis causing such hardship for people”. 

In the speech he suggested that UK councils were rife with waste and that wherever inefficiency is found the DOLGE unit will “stamp it out and root it out”. 

The DOLGE unit was launched in June by then-party chairman Zia Yusuf to much fanfare, although it has struggled amidst legal issues surrounding council data, high profile resignations, and claims it is misleading voters. 

Neither Reform’s local DOGE unit, nor its national level policy on government waste mentions fraud and waste through the Covid Bounce Back Loans scheme. 

One of Reform’s original four MPs, James McMurdock, resigned the whip in July after a Sunday Times investigation into two Bounce Back loans he took out on companies with negligible assets, following up reporting last year by Byline Times. McMurdock’s two companies JAM Financial and Gym Live Health & Fitness Ltd received a collective £70,000 in Bounce Back Loans. 

McMurdock was referred to the Public Sector Fraud Authority following the Sunday Times report. 

McIvor and Murdock are not the only Reform figures whose business record during the pandemic has come under scrutiny.

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Greatest Minds

On the election of Andrew Husband, the Reform UK leader of Durham Council, a Reform UK spokesperson said: “Andrew is a business leader with a proven track record of growth in start-ups and building successful teams”. 

Husband’s “proven track record” includes several short-lived businesses including United Hygiene and Catering Equipment limited which is now in liquidation with over £1 million in debt. Husband told Byline Times that he “invested in a few [startups but decided to pull out of hospitality. Any failures were long after I left as a director. It proves I was right to exit”. 

UHC Leisure, a company that lists Husband as the sole active director, entered insolvency on 23 July with a £40,877 outstanding bank loan to Barclays and £235,419 owed to HMRC. The company’s balance sheet from 2021 shows that in 2020 it had net liabilities of £256,171 which includes a £50,000 bank loan. The company was incorporated in 2019. 

Husband confirmed to this newspaper that the business took out a Bounce Back Loan which he said was “underpinned by proven turnover”. UHC Leisure leased a pub in County Durham which was forced to close due to an electrical fire. Husband is currently pursuing an insurance claim and told Byline Times: “Obviously I am no position to take on more pubs or restaurants….working full time as Leader, plus with the ongoing battle with the insurers I decided this was the best course of action. I am one of the biggest creditors unfortunately. Any debts stemmed from the period of closure during lockdown. We will be pursuing compensation”. 

Private Eye reported in June that Husband sold 10,000 IIR surgical masks to Durham council during the pandemic (before he was elected) for £2 a mask when the average price the NHS was paying for IIR masks at that time was 40p. 

Husband disputed the Private Eye story when asked by Byline Times, and said that he had raised it with his lawyer. According to Husband the average price of masks from his company during the one-off sale was 20p. He added that “the product was certified” in comparison to the “billions of NHS product [that] was written off”. Byline Times was not able to independently verify either claim. 

Jaymey McIvor and Reform UK did not respond to requests for comment. 

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