Tory chair accuses Tice of being ‘threatening bully’
THE Conservative chairman has accused Reform UK leader Richard Tice of being a “threatening bully” as a row erupted between the two parties.
Richard Holden’s remarks were in response to Mr Tice telling a Tory MP to “pipe down” in a heated exchange on social media.
It came after the MP had said that Reform had more than a “few rotten eggs” in response to a tabloid report that a handful of its candidates expressed support for Tommy Robinson and shared social media conspiracy theories.
Mr Holden wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “What a threatening bully Richard Tice is exposing himself to be. Silly man.”
Mr Tice told The Telegraph: “I think it’s fair to say that full-scale war has broken out between the Tories and Reform.
“We can either focus on policies, or we can focus on trying to verbally kill each other. The choice is up to the Tories.
“They’re going to end up with less than 100 seats and that’s part of my mission. They’re not going to bully me and my candidates.”
Garry Sutherland and Yvette Maxwell Darkes were named by the Mail on Sunday as having shared social media posts endorsing Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League.
Mr Tice said Mr Sutherland had “deleted his endorsement” of the video and said Ms Maxwell Darkes had been removed from the candidate list prior to the newspaper contacting Reform.
Other candidates highlighted by the newspaper included Mark Hoath, who shared claims there was “no pandemic” during the Covid outbreak, and Richard Brown, who called Labour politician Jess Phillips a “b----”. It is not the first time tensions have run high between the parties.
Damian Green, the chairman of the One Nation Group of centrist Tory MPS, on Friday accused Reform of being “focused on stoking division among society, not prioritising the needs of this country”.
Mr Tice hit back by labelling Mr Green “another frit Tory, terrified of being ousted [and] trying to defend the indefensible”.