RICHARD TICE has told how he thinks Rishi Sunak winning the race to become PM will see Tory voters defect in the droves.
Speaking to GB News the leader of the Reform Party also hit out at the Government’s levelling up agenda saying: “They haven’t got a clue.”
He told the channel:”The truth is like many of Boris’s slogans, they were great slogans but no delivery, no action and complete waffle.
“He even had to appoint a minister for leveling up to work out what it meant, because he didn’t have a clue. None of them had a clue. There’s been no leveling up whatsoever. But let me tell you what I would do. In fact, the only attempt at leveling up they’ve done is to continue with HS two, which sadly is exactly the opposite. It’s actually levelling down by bringing people a little bit quicker from the North to London. So what I think they should do is they should cancel HS2, that would save 100 billion quid and we should use that money rapidly, urgently to invest it in the North, East-West links Liverpool to Manchester, to Leeds to Hull to Newcastle, that would be true levelling up. But here’s the other thing, and I’ve heard it on the doors, campaigning up and down the country, we’ve got an energy crisis.
“We’ve potentially facing rationing this winter. It’s the gravest crisis since the Second World War, the best thing in terms of levelling up is to drill down for shale gas. The value of our shale gas is a trillion quid plus. That’s half our national debt. Think about this, a trillion pounds of levelling up by drilling down, it will create jobs, it would release the treasure under our feet, which is completely wasted at the moment. And we could have a huge sovereign wealth fund, we could invest it in the regions in the north, in the southwest, all of these opportunities, and actually, it’s better for the environment because if we use our own gas, domestic gas, you save co2 emissions compared to importing it. So it’s an absolute win-win. And for me, that’s the biggest, the fastest, that’s the most effective form of levelling up in terms of the value that it would create.”
Asked if Rishi Sunak’s decision to run for Prime Minister has left the former Brexit party “quaking” in their boots, Mr Tice said: “Absolutely not. To be honest, I’d be delighted if Rishi Sunak wins because we will have even more members joining us and we’ve had really good numbers in the last couple of days saying I’m done with the Tories and can’t trust them. You know, they’re not going to do the right thing. They’re not going to cut taxes. Rishi confirmed it this morning. He is a serious candidate. See what he is for, if you’re ready for Rishi, you’re ready for more tax rises, you’re ready for more inflation, you’re ready for more growth. Are you still ready for Rishi? I didn’t think so. He would actually be good for Reform UK because more and more people would see that our agenda is the real conservative agenda of cutting taxes, hard on consumer goods, on VAT, and having a sensible agenda to reduce emissions. We all reduce emissions but let’s use our shale gas honourably. None of these candidates are talking about shale gas, the treasure underneath our feet. None of them are talking about the opportunity. None of them are talking about how we get energy bills down? How do we get self-reliant? It’s extraordinary. They don’t seem to understand how people are really suffering up and down the country.”
He added: “We all want to do our bit. We all care about the environment. But you know, I think they all sign up and the whole of Westminster signs up to it’s the wrong bit. The wrong price in the wrong time frame. And all it will do is impoverish the whole nation. It’ll send our jobs and money overseas, and it’s the least well off, the lowest-paid, the poorest in society, who suffer most with small increases or large increases in energy bills and fuel prices. And the truth is, actually, fossil fuels have enriched all of us. We live longer lives. Billions more people around the world actually benefit their lives with more energy with cheaper energy because of fossil fuels. So yes, let’s use technology to reduce emissions. But let’s recognize that actually cheap cost-effective energy by fossil fuels is our best opportunity. We’ve got all of this energy resource of our own. We could be so wealthy as a nation, we could cut taxes for 10s of millions of people really significantly. But to do that, let’s use our own treasure.”
The British businessman said, so far, he hasn’t seen anyone that would be able to deliver his vision for the country. He explained: “I haven’t heard any of them talk about energy. I haven’t heard any of them talk about shale gas, and they all talk about taxes. Boris Johnson talked about tax cuts. I want to be able to trust someone. And the truth is given that almost all of the candidates with a couple of honourable exceptions, sat in that cabinet and completely betrayed the manifesto they stood on, I didn’t trust any of them. I think people need to be really careful about who they place their trust in.”
