Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice has said that he could “almost smell the hatred and antisemitism” from some Labour MPs in the House of Commons.
He was speaking at a fringe event organised by the Reform Jewish Alliance (RJA) at the party’s annual conference on Friday.
Tice was introduced by the group’s chair Gary Mond, who described Nigel Farage’s second-in-command as “one of the strongest friends of the Jewish community that I've ever known”.
Tice told the delegates that after attending a “hate march” on October 9, 2023 out of curiosity, he “was genuinely horrified, and … almost immediately afterwards, I said we have to stop these hate marches. We have to ban them because we knew where it was going to go.”
The MP for Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire then described “Judaeo-Christian values” as the “absolute bedrock of British values” and lamented that a “failure of leadership” back in 2023 “has led to the horrific rise in antisemitism that we have seen thereafter”.
The Reform deputy leader expressed a “great sadness” at the state of Parliamentary debates when it comes to Israel and Jewish affairs.
“I can almost smell the hatred and the antisemitism from the opposite, from the opposing benches on the Labour Party,” he said, adding: “In fairness, there are some fantastic Labour MPs who are very, very supportive, and we should be very, very grateful to them.
"But there are there are a very, very significant number for whom the opposite is true, and it is truly terrifying.”
He criticised pro-Gaza independent MPs, and observed that he was being investigated by Parliament’s standards watchdog for not referring to his register of interests during a debate on Israel, while pro-Gaza MPs who had received donations from pro-Palestine groups had not been subject to a similar probe.
Tice went on to say that it was “inexcusable” that the Conservatives failed to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) while in office.
Farage’s lieutenant also slammed inaction against the Muslim Brotherhood.
“We have consistently called for the prescription of the Muslim Brotherhood, and yet they won't do it, and there is no reason, no reason whatsoever. It just requires conviction, passion, commitment, courage, leadership, and support,” he said.
After Tice spoke, delegates heard from Caroline Clapper, RJA official and the leader of the Reform UK group on Hertsmere council. She said she was “incredibly proud” to be “part of a party that has been so clear and unequivocal in its support for the British Jewish community.”
She then read out detailed policy proposals she hoped would be taken on by the party in the next electoral manifesto.
These included: protecting “Jewish religious freedoms” including kosher slaughter and circumcision, maintaining the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism “across government and support its appropriate views throughout the public sector”, and a ban on “hate marches”.
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