Can Reform UK decide the general election? With Richard Tice | SpectatorTV

Freddy Gray speaks to Reform UK leader Richard Tice on the first day of the general election campaign. They cover the ‘Rwanda farce’, why Net Zero will be scrapped under a Reform government, and why Richard Tice will never do a deal with Labour or the Tories.

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hello and welcome to a special edition of spectated TV and the reason we are bringing you a special edition of spectated TV is that after Rishi sunak announced that there would be an election yesterday A lot of people speculated that he was shooting the reform Fox which is meant to mean uh that he was um outwitting reform and their growing uh standing in the polls uh and the reform were going to be a bit scuppered by his election move a lot of people are saying this on the right so we thought who better to ask about this than the leader of Reform Richard TI thank you for having me great listen it’s exactly the opposite the truth is let me ask a question first Have You Been scuppered by yesterday’s election the truth is he stood there drenched in the rain he was out foxed by Steve Bray Ramona in Chief with his boogie Blaster he looked ridiculous it highlighted the incompetence of the Tory government and I’ve been saying for months don’t underestimate the prospect of a summer election what’s actually happened is he’s so petrified and his colleagues by what they’re hearing in their safe seats from MPS saying lot of reformers out there we’re worried that we’re going up in the polls they’ve been sinking in the polls and they’re thinking well if we don’t do it in the summer all of a sudden heaven forbid they might equal Us in the polls if we run it long so we thought it was uh eminently a a possibility and inevitably sort of everybody sort of slightly thought after May thei when it’s going to go long but I was I was far from convinced so look I’m I’m not at all surprised in in fact the truth is the people who’ve been wrong-footed are all the Tory back bench MPS who were told it was going to be November who now Furious because they’re not going to get their extra salaries and they’re all going to be they all going to lose their jobs and there were sort of unbelievable chat they might try and destabilize them and get rid of them I mean what a what a f what a shambles well I could see that point but can you just take me through the day of Richard ties yesterday I think the first room is hit me at about 10 to 10:30 and it was quite clear I think the post that I took most significance from was actually Tim Shipman yeah and I thought this is clearly so we we we basically Knew by late morning that this was this was a certainty and that’s that’s fine onwards and upwards so we are we’re we’re full steam ahead and we’ve we’ve done our our press conference this morning which went extremely well we highlighted and we knew because we we were getting ready for these disastrous immigration figures that we knew would be disastrous this morning and contrary to the ridiculous suggestion from James cleverly that this is good news I mean the man is just a baref liar I’m sorry 685,000 net that’s a city much bigger than the city of Manchester net gross that’s a city the size of Birmingham that has come to settle in just one year in the UK and the pressure that this Mass immigration is imposing on the UK is is unsustainable here’s an unbelievable stat more people are settled in the UK under Mass immigration with the Tories complete betrayal of what they promised in the last 2 years than in 950 years up until 2010 from 66 that’s the level of extraordinary numbers and what it’s doing is it’s Mass immigration it depresses wages of British workers undercuts wages and is unfair particularly on young people it’s putting huge pressure on housing again really unfair on young people housing rents in the last years up on average well over 20% house prices are unaffordable for most people and they’re also putting unbelievable pressure on our Healthcare System again everybody loses out it’s just not fair but Richard I can see you’ve got a very convincing message particularly on immigration it’s going to be a pop the immigration election the immigration election but what everyone’s saying is reform we not prepared are your candidates ready have you got all the proced candidates approved and allocated all the nomination papers are going out we’ve got all the DAT should they are you are you less prepared than say the labor party can’t send them out you can’t send them out until you know the days of the nomination dates right so uh they they’re literally all ready all the constituents names on they’re all ready so they’re that’s all going out I’ve got 500 approved and allocated I’ve got like all parties you’re filling in the last gaps of the jigs jigsaw as we are I think we’re probably more prepared than the Tory party frankly and better vetted well look everybody has their vetting issues um I mean you know you have all sorts of vetting issues from the green party to labor with their anti- seites but everybody has their issues vetting is like anot it’s only valid on the day you do it and if someone then does or write something D what I’m actually quite proud of is that when someone gets found that for having written or said or typed something DED we call it out and we deal with it faster than any other party and that’s because we’re not going to take this nonsense whereas some of the others they try and oh Shuffle it under the carpet suspend them for a year and hope everyone forgets that’s not our style at all well let me tell you about the rumor that I’m heing in Westminster which is that uh the Tores got wind of the f that reform might be announcing Nigel farage is coming back to reform was going to run for reform next week which will be yeah Thursday next week and one of the reasons they announced the election was because they were nervous you’ve just proved my point they’re petrified obviously was there going to be an announcement of course we looking at all sorts of options and you know Nigel wanted to come back and campaign you look at all the different ways of doing it and when you’re looking at any form of plan proper project and plan you look at the range of options and so yeah but you’ve proven my point which is they’re terrified of us they’re petrified of a poll rating they they fear Nigel and Nigel’s going to come and campaign and we are going to cause them serious problems and rightly say they’ve broken this country they betrayed all their promises they’ve made people poorer they’ve made the quality of life worse and they deserve a damn good punishing and frankly on the medium- term our objective is to say look folks you’re not up to the job you’re just like the labor party party you’re socialists you want high taxes big state Mass immigration that’s not what your voters want we need put out a a serious credible alternative I may have proven your point but you haven’t answered my question which is that was Nigel verage going to announce that he was running for reform next week we were looking at all options so it was on the cards that that would happen everything everything was being looked at and look and you look at all the options saying what happens if he runs a summer election what happens if it goes long what’s the right thing so yeah of course we look at options that’s what you expect that’s what smart well-run entities and organizations do but then this morning barage publishes this letter saying he’s he’s going to focus on the American election that’s not what he said I mean Co the thing did a little bit about I’m not me out but the thing about Westminster rumors is they weren’t very smart were they because no one in Westminster predicted what would happen yesterday no one which proves that actually Westminster is not as smart as it thinks and sometimes it gets things very badly wrong and what Nigel actually said in his letter this morning was he’s going to campaign with reform for the next few weeks he’s not broadcasting with GB news to allow himself full flexibility to to do that there’s a real plus side of not standing in a seat which is that it’s much easier to campaign everywhere whereas if you’re trying to do both much harder as he’s experienced in the past and he was wearing up that experience and then it also the other upside is that then it gives the opportunity to work in work in the states later in the year but he did mention the states and and I think it is a fair criticism and it’s not just Westminster Village People saying this that Nigel farage is supposed to be a politician that cares about Britain and so on and yet here he is at this crunch moment in British politics and he’s talking about the American election maybe he’s not saying the reason I’m not going to run as unfocusing on the American election but he’s certainly talking about that and that seems to be his Focus does that not slightly undermine this idea of him as this Great Patriotic British complete nonsense honestly um I’ve rarely heard such nonsense for a long time uh the reality is that he’s going to help in this campaign which is now for the next six weeks then he’s got the opportunity to help in the states after that and you know the most patriotic thing is to make sure that the strength of the relationship with the likely next president of the United States particularly if there’s a labor government which all the holsters and everybody says there will be then actually you need someone who is close to uh Donald Trump who is going to be patriotic for the United Kingdom and make sure that our interests are protected and served well America’s our biggest most strategically important security Ally defense Ally and indeed trading Ally and the idea that you’ve got people like David Lamy and sadique Khan winging and whining about Donald Trump actually what’s in the Patriotic British interest is for Nigel to be very close to Donald Trump that that is serving Britain well what’s very interesting about David Lamy is his complete reverse feret on Donald Trump is it not that he is now making great overs to Trump World well we’re seeing all sorts of reverse frats in the labor party me that’s what that’s what you see from Cur Arma downwards but look I’m delighted Nigel’s helping I’ve always said The more help he can give the better and it’s going to make a significant boost Nigel’s face all over Billboards and posters and yeah Le so that’s great and I think westminster’s completely got this wrong not for the first time and we are you know we’re fighting an immigration election because it’s the central reason why people are feeling poorer why the quality of life is going down I want smart immigration right where you you you welcome an equivalent number of people into the country to those who are leaving give will take 45 500,000 a year highly qualified highly skilled not going to abuse the system the Visa system like the international students and that’s that’s the way you you know that’s the right thing to do what our reform going to say about Rwanda now that it looks like we’re not we’ve always said the same thing which is a a ridiculous farce an utter waste of taxpayers money hundreds of millions I mean this government is just they’re just so willy-nilly about wasting our cash and I’m furious about it it’s been a complete distraction all they’ve sent there is three home SE 300 million quid and one migrant who they paid three grand to go for I mean it’s pathetic it really is seriously the only way you’ll stop the boats and this is the other important thing is you’ve got to pick up and safely take back the Tores haven’t got the guts to do it Kama wants more people coming across in the boats Nots less these people don’t care that 15 people have already died this year 15 that we know about we’re the only party with a kind and compassionate policy that will stop the boats and by the way it’s what the EU leaders should do in the Mediterranean but you don’t buy this argument that eventually the EU leaders are going to catch up with the same idea which is that event we’re going to have to find developing world countries that we know it’s not a deterrent because more than 20% uh people migrants have crossed the channel this year in the full knowledge yeah that technically they’re not treated as Asylum Seekers and that technically they might be sent around so it’s clearly not a deterrent what do we we got up to 10,000 already 15 people have died it’s not a deterent they’re viewing it as a joke a f an embarrassment and and there’s another reason why he’s gone early is that just imagine how embarrassing it would be so he gets the first few flights off there’s a few migrants on it and guess what the boats keep coming and they keep coming and they keep coming in their tens of thousands and then he looks even more ridiculous than he looked yesterday in his drenched rain with Steve Bray’s Boogie blast do you know what a lot of British people think uh which I think you’re going to disagree with this point a lot but it is what a lot of people think which is that reform will come to some sort of agreement during the election cycle with the T party and I know this is going to be a reaction but maybe electoral Realties things change a lot in the next six weeks nother maybe electoral reties kick in it’s another mad Westminster rumor over West I’m not hearing this from westmin I’m hearing this from people who have nothing to do with Westminster who think who hope who don’t want a labor government and think that they I don’t want a labor government but I don’t want a Tory government either because they betrayed us you can’t be trusted they say all this nonsense just the other week sunak and cleverly said that they were going to reduce the immigration numbers reduce the international student numbers all of a sudden we Wishy sunet gets a little tap on the shoulder from Big Dave Cameron said no no no dear boy you’re not going to do that keep the numbers coming yes sir very good sir yes my Lord yes ridiculous so just to be clear on the record there will be no Alliance no coordination they deserve to be punished and they will be punished okay and I’m going to come back to farage at the last point and I know it’s boring for you to be asked about this a lot but a lot of people talk about this your relationship with him has it been strained in the last 24 hours have you had a difficult conversation with absolutely lot look look we’re very good friends we think on on very similar lines almost identical lines and um probably the thing we argue most about is whether or not to have a glass of red or a glass of white to be honest um but uh no so these rumors that he calls you the hairdresser and so on that’s all that’s all rubbish well I mean he I don’t maybe he’s jealous that you know I haven’t got gray hair I’m really joking you do have better hair that’s true uh but no it’s all rubbish look um right I’m very grateful that uh I have got uh I’m I’m lucky enough to have some hair any rumors that the hairdresser has been putting coloring in is also complete nonsense if you could control Nigel farage’s output over the last 24 hours would you have stopped him that letter this morning no one saying that he wasn’t no completely the opposite it I welcomed that because obviously what it did was clarify before the press conference that he was going to help uh during the campaign brilliant thrilled to bits which is why I was able to say I was excited and thrilled at the press conference that he’s getting stuck in marvelous right and do you have a target for the number of seats you want to win obviously about 325 okay okay but I mean real you have to be an optimist in politics sure sure but you don’t have any kind of set number that you think will be a good result i’ you know I’m not saying I what I want is for millions of people to have the courage of their convictions to votee for what they believe in not what they’re afraid of to ignore the nonsense from the Tories that you can trust us we’re going to get it right this time we promise we’ve all been there before we’ve been let down we’ve been lied to and millions of Voters uh who who agree with with real conservative philosophy of of higher wages high growth small states uh smart immigration not mass immigration and Zero Tolerance on Law and Order that’s what we stand for if you believe in that if you think the country is in a bad state if you want change you got to vote for it and I get that you’re depressed and sorry sorry sorry about I get that you’re angry at the Tory party I think there’s a fair that’s fair to say you’re angry at the Tory party and I think a lot of Voters feel the same way and that’s a lot of your appeal what I want to know is over the next how many six weeks it is you will will you attack labor and the conservatives yes absolutely they’re identical there’s no difference between the two um so absolutely we’re attacking starmageddon and they they want what the tourist want Which is higher taxes bigger States Mass immigration they don’t care about the boats coming across they got no plans to stop that and they’ve got no plans to grow the economy and by the way both of them utterly obsessed with the job destroying industry killing uh Net Zero which is which is a disaster for the steel industry a disaster for automotive industry it’s killing communities it’s actually killing old people who can’t afford the hating when we’ve got all this fantastic energy treasure under our feet that would create huge amounts of economic growth and yet these two main parties utter negligence not to look to use our energy treasure under our feet our Shell Gas our oiling gas it’s unbelievable they’re obsessed with Net Zero it’s a disaster it’s killing our economy it’s killing jobs so we’re going to put a serious alternative and you know what the real winner democracy let’s hope so Richard thank you so much for spectator uh we’re very grateful I know it’s been a very busy day for you so we’re very grateful to you for coming in