Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice has claimed that an investigation by Parliament’s standards watchdog into his alleged failure to declare a financial interest stems from a complaint from an “antisemitic anti-Israel lobby group”.
The probe was opened by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards last Tuesday and relates to rule six in the MPs’ code of conduct.
According to the rule, members must be “open and frank” in declaring “any relevant interest in any proceeding of the House or its committees”, and in any communications with public office-holders and public officials.
Tice claimed the inquiry was about a complaint by an “anti-Israel lobby group” over whether he should have referenced his register of interests at the start of “a debate on UK democracy and Israeli influence”.
Without naming the group he was referring to, he wrote on social media: “Contrary to garbage in media, the Standards Commissioner is considering a complaint by an antisemitic anti-Israel lobby group over whether I should have referenced my register of interests at the start of a debate on UK democracy and Israeli influence.”
It comes after a separate parliamentary investigation was opened into party leader Nigel Farage’s receipt of £5 million from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne before he was elected, which he maintained was a personal, unconditional gift.
The inquiry into Mr Farage was suspended after he triggered a by-election by resigning in his Clacton seat, but would resume if he becomes an MP again.
His main competition in the contest is comedy candidate Count Binface after the major parties boycotted the poll, which they see as a political stunt.
Reform UK has been contacted for comment.
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