EXCLUSIVE: A leading figure in UK politics predicts the Prime Minister and Chancellor won’t get another chance to deliver a Budget
This will be the last time Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves get to devise Britain’s Budget, according to one of the key architects of the Reform UK revolution. Deputy leader Richard Tice says he is convinced the Prime Minister and Chancellor’s time in power is coming to an end. Reform has a double-digit lead over its rivals and Mr Tice is at the heart of the team working to put Nigel Farage in Number 10.
They are also constructing policies to tackle the greatest threats to Britain – and he says he wants to “weep” when he sees what Labour has done to the economy. If Ms Reeves launches a new tax raid in the November 26 Budget, he warns, “more people will lose their jobs and growth will go down”.
This will be Rachel Reeves’s last Budget, of that I am convinced,” he says. “And I actually think it will be Keir Starmer’s last Budget as Prime Minister.”
He says the Reform team are working “all hours that God gives” in pursuit of victory the next time the UK goes to the polls.
Framing the opportunity and the challenge, he says: “Can we win the next general election? Yes. Is it easy? No.”
He is no doubt what the top three priorities of a Reform Chancellor must be. He or she must “cut vast amounts of wasteful spending, scrap net stupid zero, and scrap a whole load of daft, unproductive regulations”.
Mr Tice fears that in six to 12 months people up and down the land will be talking about unemployment.
He warns: “All of the data is heading the wrong direction – investment, jobs, vacancies and confidence. Everywhere you look, there’s doom and gloom… “The only thing propping up the economy is the sugar rush of often wasteful public sector spending.”
At the core of his vision for reviving Britain’s economy is taking on the legions of the “workshy” and getting people back into jobs.
“Everybody has to understand there is no such thing as a free lunch,” he insists. Everybody’s got to contribute. Everybody’s got to pay their way.”
Mr Tice worked for decades in the property business. His website describes how he started out digging foundations in the snow with Irish labourers and ended up as the chief executive of an international real estate company.
“Work is a great thing,” he says. “It’s good for your family. It’s good as an example to your children.”
The 61-year-old says the “best cure for mental health” is to “get up, get out, get on, get busy”.
Richard Tice has been at the heart of anti-EU campaigns and is now working to make Nigel Farage PM (Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
He relishes his packed-diary life as the MP for Boston and Skegness and has a track record of turning long-shot goals into reality. An arch-eurosceptic, he co-founded Leave.EU to push for Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Once the country voted Out, he helped launch Leave Means Leave so the UK would not sign a Brexit deal that left it a Brussels rule-taker. And in April 2019 he quit the Conservatives and became the chairman of the Brexit Party, which is now Reform UK.
The Conservatives, he says, have “got to be binned and they will be binned”.
Britain’s traditional parties of power are waiting to see whether Reform can turn its high poll numbers into votes – and a key test will come in May when thousands of council seats and control of the Welsh and Scottish parliaments are all up for grabs.
Can the party lead the Welsh Government, which has been run by Labour ever since Sir Tony Blair introduced devolution in 1999?
“Hopefully,” he says. “I mean, we’re working very hard. We’re not in any way complacent.”
He says Reform are an “existential threat” to Labour, who finished third behind Reform and winners Plaid Cymru in the recent Caerphilly by-election.
“They’ve run Wales into the ground over the last 20-plus years and people want change,” he says. “People want Reform.
“And I’m convinced that they’re going to vote for it and they’re going to surprise everybody.”
Reform, which is unapologetic about wanting to make the most of North Sea oil and gas reserves, “could so extraordinarily well in Scotland,” he claims, adding: “Drill, Scotland, drill is a pretty popular slogan, to be honest.”
Reform UK is working for a breakthrough in Scotland (Image: DAILY RECORD)
If the party can prove it can run a nation – while improving life in the council areas it controls across the country – then voters who are disillusioned with decades of Conservative and Labour management of Britain may be prepared to entrust Reform with power at Westminster.
“The state of the country’s finances absolutely give me sleepless nights, they give Nigel sleepless nights,” he says. “We’re very clear about that.”
But he sees no shortage of areas where burdens can be removed from businesses and households.
“Businesses have got this new packaging tax that’s coming in almost as we speak, which for all businesses is just a logistical, expensive, useless, pointless nightmare,” he states. “And these are the sort of things that we’ll just scrap.”
He wants to tackle “dodgy” barbers, minimarkets and vape shops on the nation’s high streets and get a grip on businesses he believes are fronts for laundering drug money.
“The whole thing is right in plain sight,” he says. “The whole thing’s crackers. Absolutely crackers.”
Reform has reached the top of the polls at a time when illegal immigration is a key concern for many voters. Mr Tice is scathing about Labour’s attempts to stop migrant crossings in the Channel.
“We all wish the Government well in stopping the boats,” he says. “Everybody wants them stopped.
“But clearly their current strategy has failed hugely. They said they’d smash the gangs and that would stop the boats.
“They haven’t smashed the gangs. They’ve encouraged the gangs.”
Migrants continue to cross the English Channel from France (Image: Getty)
He is incensed when describing France’s role in stopping dinghies taking off.
“France? All they’re doing is banking our cash, giving some of it to their gendarmes,” he says. “By the way, I think there’s a massive level of corruption in and around northern France. They are all complicit. It all suits them.
“They’re laughing at our stupidity.”
The Conservatives now support pulling out of the European Convention of Human Rights but Mr Tice sees no chance of cross-party consensus on this by the time of the next election.
“The Lib Dems and Labour, they’re obsessed with this ridiculous, outdated, archaic dinosaur legislation,” he says.
And he is “very concerned” at how Labour may push Britain closer to the EU in the years before the country gets the chance to elect a new Government.
“There’s no growth in the EU,” he says, adding: “It’s not like they are shooting the lights out compared to the UK. They’re not.
“They’re all in deep trouble with a couple of smallish exceptions. Why would you want to handcuff yourself to a failing model that’s sinking relative to the global competition?”
He worries Britain will “barely grow at all” in the coming years and wants to create a culture where people work hard, succeed and take on staff, where tax cuts are affordable and the economy grows.
Richard Tice in his Westminster office (Image: Adam Gerrard / Sunday Express)
The rise of Reform is mirrored on the Left by the surge in support for Zack Polanski’s Greens but Mr Tice argues there is a “direct link” between the growth of renewable energy and the increase in electricity prices. He claims this is “destroying industries” and “everybody can see it in their bills”.
However, he insists Reform is “passionate about the environment,” saying: “Why would you cover tens of thousands of acres of productive farmland that should be used for producing food? You’ve got whole villages being surrounded by solar panels.
“That is not environmentally friendly. That’s not good for the countryside.”
Despite his dismay at Labour’s stewardship of the country it is clear he adores being an MP.
“I love it,” he says. “It’s great. It’s fantastic.”
He talks with satisfaction about sorting out issues for his constituents, ranging from assisting a pensioner with a DWP miscalculation to helping a young lad in need of replacement wheelchair.
“Those are things where you can make a difference and it’s incredibly rewarding,” he says.
He has already shaped modern Britain through his years in the Brexit movement. Now he wants to make Mr Farage Prime Minister and “save the UK”.
Whether he gets to grasp the levers of power is up to the voters of the UK but he will not tire of making the case for radical change.
