Reform UK leader denies claims Conservative MPs offered cash to defect | UK News

The leader of Reform UK says ‘no cash or money’ has been offered to Conservative MPs in response to claims reportedly made by the Tory deputy chairman. 

Richard Tice, who helms the Nigel Farage-linked party, told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg program this morning: ‘Let me make it absolutely clear, no cash or money has in any way been offered, what has been offered is the chance to change the shape of the debate.’

Allegations that Reform UK are attempting to recruit disillusioned Conservative MPs ahead of next year’s general election come amid Nigel Farage’s appearance on I’m A Celebrity, viewed by many as an attempt to curry favour with voters.

It adds to a growing list of government woes in recent weeks, notably with the forced resignation of former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and damning evidence from a public inquiry into Boris Johnson’s handling of the pandemic. 

The Sunday Times claimed last month to have obtained a recording of Conservative Deputy Chair Lee Anderson, who’s represented Ashfield since 2019, telling activists he’d been promised ‘a lot of money’ to defect to Reform UK. 

Reportedly taken during a South Cambridgeshire Conservative Association event, the recording is understood to feature Mr Anderson saying: ‘Now there is a political party that begins with an R that offered me a lot of money to join them. 

‘I say a lot of money, I mean a lot of money.’

Those allegations followed after The Times claimed earlier this year that Conservative Chief Whip Simon Hart had reported Reform UK over allegations the party was offering a full salary for five years to MPs who agreed to defect, even if they subsequently lost their seats. 

Mr Tice described those previous claims as ‘nonsense.’

In today’s interview, he went on to say: ‘I’m very happy to confirm that I’ve had numerous discussions with a number of Tory MPs, ministers, former ministers, who are absolutely furious with the complete betrayal of the Government’s promises, furious with the failure to stop the boats, furious with opening the borders to mass immigration.’

He added: ‘What’s really happened here is that Lee Anderson has used the threat of defecting to Reform to negotiate himself the deputy chairmanship of the Tory party because this story first appeared almost exactly the same, in the time back in February when coincidentally, he was made deputy chairman of the Tory party.’

Mr Tice’s comments in response to the allegations come on the same day Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used an interview with The Mail on Sunday to warn voters against turning to Reform UK amid growing dissatisfaction with the Conservatives’ performance in government. 

He told the paper: ‘A vote for everyone who is not a Conservative is a vote to put Keir Starmer into office.’

Laura Trott, Chief Secretary of the Treasury, made similar comments in an interview with Sky News. 

She said: ‘I’d be very clear that a vote for Reform or any other party which is not Conservative is a vote for Keir Starmer as prime minister.

‘But what I would say is one of the reasons it’s so important for me to come on shows like yours is for us to communicate as a government what we are doing to stop the boats.’

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