EAST Thurrock MP James McMurdock has defended his questioning of parliament in the wake of a Sky News report criticising him for submitting an unnecessary and spurious number of submissions.

And he goes further, condemning Sky for its news values and says it is a 'good example of how the media and government operates to control the narrative'.

Sky highlighted the South Basildon and East Thurrock independent MP as an example of MPs who are accused of diverting resources and wasting public money as the number of written parliamentary questions rose to 90,331 in 2025, up from 49,125 in 2024, which was close to the average for the previous decade.

Its report says on Friday, 2 January 2026 Mr McMurdock tabled 342 questions on a range of subjects from Palestine funding to road deterioration and the UK-Italy young leaders programme.

Watch Sky News' report:-

Mr McMurdock says the questions, which he defends the right to ask, were accumulated over a number of days over Christmas and the figure of 342 represents the day they were processed when staff returned to work, distorting the true position.

He absolutely refutes what he says is an allegation by Labour ministers, who 'reached out' to Sky, that he has been using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate questions.

Mr McMurdock says: "A written question is something that I can submit formally that, as it sounds, literally asks a direct question to a minister.

"And they are complaining that the NHS and housing questions they have received have doubled.

"Let's talk about specifically why.

Watch James McMurdock's full response to criticisms:

"I'm the MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock. Basildon Hospital has been downgraded to 'inadequate', not 'needs improving', not 'OK'. Literally it is 'failing'. So, of course, it's incumbent on me to take serious action to try to improve the situation.

"Literally, people's lives are on the line.

"On housing I did some analysis where I put through a report directly to the housing minister which showed Basildon Council had about five times more complaints and serious failures than five authorities around it. They are failing vulnerable people.

"But they are complaining I am putting in too many questions and implying I am wasting taxpayer's money. 

"It's extraordinary that the government's tried it on and it doesn't speak very highly of Sky News."