Reform UK to stand in every seat at general election as leader claims Tories are ‘terrified’

Richard Tice accused the Conservatives of breaking Britain.

Reform UK are set to stand in every seat at the general election in a fresh headache for Rishi Sunak.

Party leader Richard Tice made the announcement on Wednesday, adding that the Tories were “terrified” of the threat his party poses.

Former leader Nigel Farage opted to stand down candidates against sitting Tory MPs in the 2019 General Election to ensure Boris Johnson's Brexit deal passed, but that support now seems to be off the table.

Reform Party leader Richard Tice speaking at a press conference at the Conrad Hilton, London.

Giving a press conference at a hotel near Westminster, Mr Tice criticised the Prime Minister and demanded an election, vowing his party would stand in every constituency, including Scotland’s 57 seats.

He said: “[The country is] ready for Rishi to call an election sooner rather than later.

“I’m optimistic that the country quite rightly wants to punish the Tories for breaking Britain.

“The truth is the Tories are terrified, yes in the new year the special pleading has already started. ‘Oh, please don’t stand here, please don’t stand there, I’m one of the nice guys, I believe in everything that you believe in’.

“You’ve all broken Britain, you’re all responsible, so there’s no special deals, we stand in every single seat in England, Scotland and Wales.”

In a clear move to garner Tory voters unhappy with Mr Sunak’s record on immigration, Mr Tice claimed not stopping the boats was “the biggest betrayal”.He said: "They promised, they absolutely promised, election after election, particularly when we were going to get Brexit done, that they were going to bring down lawful immigration.

"And yet they've deliberately done the exact opposite. They've betrayed the people, in particular they've betrayed Brexit voters and the working-class voters.

"They have opened the borders to mass, uncontrolled immigration on a scale that this country has never seen before."

Mr Tice added that Nigel Farage is yet to make up his mind on the role he will play in Reform UK ahead of the general election.

The Reform leader told the press conference: “We’ve been talking over the Christmas period and he’s obviously giving a lot of thought as to the extent of the role he wants to play in helping Reform UK frankly save Britain.

“He is still assessing that.

“Nigel is the master of political timing but I’m very clear the job at hand is so big to save Britain, the more help that Nigel is able to give in the election campaign, frankly, the better.”

The former Brexit Party MEP also criticised the Labour party, warning of “Starmergeddon”, complete with a Photoshopped poster referencing the 1998 film.

He said: "We are facing a catastrophic cocktail of economic incompetence and cultural pillage which will be a disaster for the United Kingdom because, of course, in every Labour Government, in every socialist way, they want more taxes, they want more of your money.

"Unbelievably, they want to get closer to the failing, sclerotic, recessionary European Union.

"The Labour Party was founded supposedly to protect and promote the working-class but with more mass immigration you get exactly the opposite."