diff --git a/synapse/http/matrixfederationclient.py b/synapse/http/matrixfederationclient.py
index f58bf41d5..8b94e6f29 100644
--- a/synapse/http/matrixfederationclient.py
+++ b/synapse/http/matrixfederationclient.py
@@ -454,6 +454,52 @@ class MatrixFederationHttpClient(object):
 
         defer.returnValue(json.loads(body))
 
+    @defer.inlineCallbacks
+    def delete_json(self, destination, path, long_retries=False,
+                    timeout=None, ignore_backoff=False, args={}):
+        """Send a DELETE request to the remote expecting some json response
+
+        Args:
+            destination (str): The remote server to send the HTTP request
+                to.
+            path (str): The HTTP path.
+            long_retries (bool): A boolean that indicates whether we should
+                retry for a short or long time.
+            timeout(int): How long to try (in ms) the destination for before
+                giving up. None indicates no timeout.
+            ignore_backoff (bool): true to ignore the historical backoff data and
+                try the request anyway.
+        Returns:
+            Deferred: Succeeds when we get a 2xx HTTP response. The result
+            will be the decoded JSON body.
+
+            Fails with ``HTTPRequestException`` if we get an HTTP response
+            code >= 300.
+
+            Fails with ``NotRetryingDestination`` if we are not yet ready
+            to retry this server.
+        """
+
+        response = yield self._request(
+            destination,
+            "DELETE",
+            path,
+            query_bytes=encode_query_args(args),
+            headers_dict={"Content-Type": ["application/json"]},
+            long_retries=long_retries,
+            timeout=timeout,
+            ignore_backoff=ignore_backoff,
+        )
+
+        if 200 <= response.code < 300:
+            # We need to update the transactions table to say it was sent?
+            check_content_type_is_json(response.headers)
+
+        with logcontext.PreserveLoggingContext():
+            body = yield readBody(response)
+
+        defer.returnValue(json.loads(body))
+
     @defer.inlineCallbacks
     def get_file(self, destination, path, output_stream, args={},
                  retry_on_dns_fail=True, max_size=None,