Lee Anderson, the Conservative Party’s outspoken deputy chairman, has branded Richard Tice ”a pound shop Nigel Farage” in a scathing assessment of the Reform UK leader’s credentials.
And the Tory MP for Ashfield also claimed the millionaire businessman was “Reform’s answer to Diane Abbott”, the day after Reform unveiled Ben Habib as its candidate for the forthcoming Wellingborough by-election.
Speaking on GB News, on which he is a presenter, Mr Anderson said: “Mr Tice is the leader of the Reform Party and as I understand is unelected. He actually took the reins of the Reform Party after Nigel stepped down.”
Referring to Mr Tice’s claim yesterday that Mr Anderson was “terrified that Reform is going to put him out of a job”, the latter continued: “This is not a proper political party, by the way, this is a company. Mr Tice’s spouted his mouth off and he’s had a little pop at me today.
“I get on with Richard reasonably well, but I would say this: he’s not Nigel Farage, he’s not the leader that Nigel Farage was.
“In fact, I agree with one of my constituents, who said to me earlier today he is a bit of a pound shop Nigel Farage.”
Mr Tice, who like Mr Anderson is a presenter on GB News, used yesterday’s event to signal his party’s intention to focus on the threat posed by Labour.
But Mr Anderson said: “I think he needs to pipe down a little bit because if the unthinkable happens and next year, we do get a Labour Government and Richard Tice is on his media platforms, saying what a disaster Starmergeddon and what a disaster the Labour Party are, I shall be reminding Mr Tice it was him that helped them get elected.
“I’m not interested in what Mr Tice has got to say.
“It’s alright for the likes of Mr Tice; he’s got a bob or two, he’s probably a millionaire. He can go back to his little penthouse overlooking the Thames.
“If Labour does win the election, he can shut his curtains and get on with his life.”
Mr Anderson said he was concerned the people of Britain, “especially the people of Ashfield”, would suffer “untold damage under a Labour government”.
Returning to the subject of Mr Tice, he added: “I think he’s a pound shop Nigel Farage and every time he opens his mouth recently on whichever media platform, he is coming across as Reform’s answer to Diane Abbott.
“He’s just saying ridiculous things. I mean, in one breath, he was saying just a few weeks ago, that I had not been approached by Reform to walk the floor and just a week later, I think his deputy had to correct that comment to say that there was a conversation that actually took place.
“So like I say, he is no Nigel Farage, I think Nigel Farage would have got the communications a little bit better.
“Hardly anybody in Ashfield has actually heard of Richard Tice, and he hasn’t got that connection.”
Mr Farage was not present at yesterday’s press conference, despite fanciful suggestions that he was poised to take the reins of a political outfit which is the successor to the Brexit Party, which he launched in 2018.
Mr Anderson said: “With Nigel Farage, you could go and have a drink with him, you could have a pint with him, you could go socialise with him.
“Tice hasn’t got that. He’s got to pipe down a little bit and explain to the public what it’s all about.
“I’ll have a clash with him anytime.”
Express.co.uk has contacted Mr Tice via Reform UK for comment.
