Richard Tice: Reform UK's leader, for now

Reform UK leader Richard Tice has promised to "punish" the Conservative Party at the ballot box.

Tice criticised the Conservatives and Labour as being "two sides of the same socialist coin" and teased a possible return to frontline politics by former party leader Nigel Farage.

“I think you can be very confident that Nigel is committed," Tice said. "He's already our president. I mean, you could just take away the honorary title and call him President Farage alongside a possible President Trump."

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According to recent surveys, the message may be getting through. Reform UK is polling just shy of 10% – only two points behind the Liberal Democrats. Yet for many people, the messenger – Tice himself – remains an unknown quantity.

The background

Born in Farnham, Surrey, Tice was a member of the Conservative Party and a donor. But his frustrations with the party over Europe led to him co-founding first, in 2015, the Leave.EU campaign and then, in late 2018, the Brexit Party, before expanding that party's remit into Reform UK.

On his own website, Tice describes himself as "a no-nonsense, can-do type of person who gets things done".

If Reform UK is to be a success, these are the "credentials the party's former chairman will need in spades", the BBC said in a 2021 profile after Tice had been installed as the party's leader.

On a "self-styled mission to offer somewhere to go for those who feel politically homeless", the BBC said, Tice characterises his party as "the change the country needs" and has laid out an agenda to overhaul the economy, public services and public institutions. 

His efforts have turned Reform UK into "the great enigma of right-wing British politics", said The Spectator's James Heale. The party has gathered considerable support, "despite lacking a memorable name, leader, policy platform or record of electoral success".

Away from politics, Tice "has done pretty well", said The New European. He was CEO of CLS Holdings from 2010-14, and was involved in the development of The Shard, the London skyscraper. Since 2018, Tice has been in a relationship with the political journalist Isabel Oakeshott and the pair have since formed "one of the right wing's most prominent power couples", added the paper. 

The latest

Tice's success in leading Reform UK to respectable polling numbers hasn't gone unnoticed by the Tories. Lee Anderson, deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, called Tice a "pound shop Nigel Farage" and urged him to "pipe down" after his stinging criticism of the government at a press conference on Wednesday.

Speaking on GB News, Anderson expressed concern about the impact Reform UK might have in splitting the Conservative vote, potentially helping Labour to victory at the next general election.

"If the unthinkable happens and next year, we do get a Labour government and Richard Tice is on his media platforms saying what a disaster 'Starmergeddon' and what a disaster the Labour Party are, I shall be reminding Mr Tice it was him that helped them get elected," Anderson said.

The reaction

Attempting to understand what's going on with Reform UK is "a frankly unsettling exercise in working out who it is that's gone through the looking glass – them, the rest of us, or both", said The Times's Tom Peck.

True enough, there are "a great many people out there who share Tice's view that the Tory party has broken Britain", Peck added, "but they tend to think that Brexit may have had something to do with it".

Some have speculated that Tice may find himself pushed aside ahead of the general election as Farage makes his "political comeback", said Sky News. According to Tice, his party's former leader is still "assessing" what role he will play in the next election.

"Nigel is the master of political timing but I'm very clear the job at hand is so big to save Britain, the more help that Nigel is able to give in the election campaign, frankly, the better," Tice said. 

Regardless of who is in charge, Reform UK "wields a disproportionate influence on the right of British politics", said The New European. What Tice does with that influence remains to be seen.