Reform could be ahead of Tories by the summer, says party leader
Tice: Red Wall voters will turn to us
REFORM UK will overtake the Conservatives in opinion polls by the summer, the insurgent party’s leader has claimed.
Richard Tice, who has overseen Reform come within touching distance of the Conservatives in recent polls, suggested their rise will see them succeed in Red Wall northern seats by enticing disaffected Tories.
Last week a shock study for the Daily Mail showed that if Reform stood in every constituency at the election it could cost the Tories 53 seats – leaving the current ruling party with just 80.
While the MRP poll showed Reform – supported by 14 per cent nationally – failing to win any seats, Mr Tice said the Tories ‘must be punished’ for their tax and migration records.
His comments – which were dismissed as ‘ludicrous’ by Tory insiders – came after the Conservatives’ former deputy chairman Lee Anderson, who defected to Reform last month, said moderate One Nation Tories have ‘ destroyed the Conservative Party’.
Mr Tice told Times Radio: ‘The Tories are going down in the polls, we’re going up in the polls.
‘At this trajectory, it’s not impossible that in the summer we will be equal or we will be ahead of them.
‘We’re ahead of them in the North of England, we’re ahead of them amongst men in England, we are equal to them in the Midlands.
‘We’re neck-and-neck in Wales. You can see the clear trajectory.’
‘Vote Tory and get socialism’
He said there was no difference between the plans and actions of Labour and ‘the socialist Tories with the highest taxes, the highest wasteful government spending and highest mass immigration, that no one voted for, plus being pro-net zero’.
Mr Tice has previously ruled out any chance of Reform striking a deal with the Tories similar to the Brexit Party’s move in 2019, when then leader Nigel Farage strategically stood down his candidates in seats the Conservatives had won in 2017.
Earlier this year Mr Tice said that Tory MPs deserve to lose their jobs, given their record in office. ‘They must be punished,’ he added yesterday.
‘Vote Tory and get socialism, vote Reform, get reform. That is the simple alternative that people face. Starmergeddon, Sunakgeddon, it’s all the same. It’s socialism. We’re heading to disaster.’
Mr Anderson, who represents Ashfield in Nottinghamshire and is Reform’s only MP, said some of his ‘wet’ former colleagues in the moderate One Nation caucus are bringing down Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. ‘The One Nation lot are worse than the Labour Party because they’re just socialists in disguise,’ he told GB News.
‘They’re not talking about stuff we talk about, the commonsense stuff. They hate talking about migration, illegal and legal migration.’
In the same interview, Mr Tice doubled down on his support for
proportional representation and suggested that it had a ‘lot’ of support within Labour.
‘About 13 years ago we had an [alternative vote] referendum and I think that 13 years later, the mood of the country has changed,’ he said.
‘If we had a referendum, I think we’d vote for PR now.
‘There are a lot of people in the Labour Party who want proportional representation because they realise it’s the fairest way.’
But although supported by much of the Labour membership and regional mayors, the party’s leadership has resisted embracing the policy. It is thought to be opposed by many Labour MPs who would face losing seats at a time when the party could win a landslide majority.