Reform UK has enjoyed some wins since the general election. Polls are showing Reform have jumped ahead of the Tories in popular support in London and the party saw huge gains in the local elections, even swiping what had been one of Labour’s safest seats, the Runcorn and Helsby seat.
At the helm of the party, sitting alongside Nigel Farage, is deputy leader Richard Tice. Just this week, he said on the Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme that Reform “will use whatever levers” it can to challenge asylum hotels in the council areas it now controls.
But who is Richard Tice? How did he come to be Nigel Farage’s right-hand man and what are his policies?
Who is Richard Tice?
Tice is the deputy leader of the Reform party; a position he has assumed since he was elected as MP of the Boston and Skegness constituency at the 2024 general election.
Prior to that, Tice financed the founding of the Brexit Party in 2019, which was later renamed to Reform UK, as it is known today. Between 2019 and 2024, Tice served as the chairman of the party, the party’s energy and foreign policy spokesperson, and was the leader of the party until he was succeeded by Nigel Farage.
He was also a member of the European parliament for the East of England at the 2019 European Parliament election, until the UK left the European Union in January 2020 and the constituency was consequently dissolved.
Before the creation of the Brexit Party, Tice had been a Conservative supporter.
What are his policies and views?
Both a Eurosceptic and right-wing populist, Tice was a staunch supporter of Brexit, having also advocated for a “no-deal Brexit.”
In more recent months, Tice has backed Reform’s polices to fight immigration and deliver a “Great British Tax Cut”. Reform UK has also floated an “employer immigration tax” that would see a tax placed on employers that choose to employ overseas worked instead of British citizens.
In a post on X, Tice promised to freeze immigration and ‘stop the boats’.
People are furious at the mass immigration betrayal from the main two parties.
— Richard Tice MP 🇬🇧 (@TiceRichard) May 11, 2025
Reform UK will freeze immigration and stop the boats. 👇 pic.twitter.com/IP4PsMg7tH
He has also disputed that human activities were the main contribution to climate change. In an interview with Sky News in February, he said: “The climate changed for million of years before man-made CO2.” He also accused Labour’s Ed Miliband of being “obsessed” with renewable energy in September last year.
What has he done outside of politics?
Before his career in politics, Tice was the CEO of property group CLS Holdings and the CEO of property management firm Quidnet Capital LLP.
He was born in Farnham, Surrey, and was educated at Uppingham School, an independent school in Rutland. He later read Construction Economics and Quantity Surveying at the University of Salford.
Tice has also tried his hand at television presenting, having worked at both TalkTV and most recently, GB News.
In his personal life, Tice has three children with his ex-wife Emma. Since 2018, he has been in a relationship with journalist Isabel Oakeshott.
Oakeshott hit headlines in 2023 as the journalist who exposed former health secretary Matt Hancock’s private texts. She recently moved to Dubai following Labour’s tax on private school fees, with Tice now splitting his time between the UAE and his constituency in Boston and Skegness.
