Reform’s Richard Tice hits back at Lee Anderson over cash for defection claim

hard Tice appearing on the BBC1 current affairs programme, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. I Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Wire

The leader of Reform UK has denied reports that Lee Anderson was offered money to defect to his party, and has suggested he made the claims to negotiate his promotion to deputy Conservative Party Chairman.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Richard Tice said he’d had conversations with many senior Tory MPs, but insisted that “no cash or money has in any way been offered” to encourage them to defect.

It comes after recordings leaked to The Sunday Times, reportedly showed Mr Anderson claiming that “a political party that begins with an R”, referring to the Reform Party, offered him “a lot of money to join them”.

He made the comments at a “Lagers with Lee” hosted by South Cambridgeshire Conservative Association last month, the paper claimed.

Responding to the reports, Mr Tice said: “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 government promises, furious with the failure to stop the boats, furious with opening the borders to mass immigration.

“Obviously, I will keep those discussions completely confidential. But let me make absolutely clear, no cash or money has in any way been offered.”

Mr Tice, who took over the leadership of Reform UK from its founder Nigel Farage in 2021, said his party had offered wavering Tory MPs “the change to change the shape of the debate”.

He went on to suggest that Mr Anderson had other motives for the claim, adding: “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. That’s what happened.”

The Sunday Times reported that Mr Anderson told party chief whip Simon Hart in February that he had been offered around £400,000 to defect to Reform UK.

Elsewhere in the recording, Mr Anderson is heard claiming that he believed that Labour Party, should it win the next election, would bring in proportional representation and votes for 16 and 17 year-olds which would mean the Conservative Party would be “done for for generations”.

He added that Mr Tice and Reform UK “want us to get hammered in the next election” and also supported proportional representation.

“This is what Reform wants. They don’t care about this country at all. They are mad, these people. For a party to want that to happen, they don’t care about this country. All they want is a bit of power in parliament,” he said.

“Now, the Labour Party, if you vote Reform, you give the Labour Party a chance to win. The Labour Party will bring in votes for 16-year-olds. I’m convinced they will. Now if they do that, you might as well just rip your memberships up now, because you’ll never see a Conservative, not in my lifetime, again.”

Mr Anderson did not respond to a request for comment from The Sunday Times, and i has approached him for comment about the claims made by Mr Tice.

He was appointed to the role of deputy party chairman in February, and party chairman Richard Holden announced on Saturday that Mr Anderson would be responsible for campaigning in the run-up to the next general election.

Commenting on the news, which came out prior to the reports in The Sunday Times, Mr Anderson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was “very happy with this announcement”.

“Every week I visit different Conservative Associations to speak to members and supporters about my political journey,” he said.

“I am doing my level best to raise money and raise spirits to make sure Labour do not get into Downing Street.”

“Some folk may say I am not a typical Tory but I say my party gave me a home when I was politically homeless and protected me from day [one].”

Mr Anderson added the he was “determined to make sure I pay my party back and help make my beautiful country a better place to live in”.