Richard Tice MP: speeches

Speeches

• 22 Jun 2026 · UK Politics: Pro-Israel Influence · Hansard source

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  The use of AI across society, and its applications in all industries, are changing rapidly, but I gently suggest to the hon. Gentleman that the best way to guarantee peace is to prepare for war so that our opponents respect us. To conclude, Israel has so much to offer as the only democracy in the middle east and we should work closely with it. As other hon. Members have said, there is a massive difference between criticising politicians who may be elected in a democracy—whether in Israel or elsewhere—which is completely legitimate, and criticising a state. I want to celebrate the influence of incredible entrepreneurs, scientists, technicians and cyber-security specialists in Israel, from the Jewish community, and in our great nation—and I want to have more of that, not less.

• 23 Feb 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State conveniently forgot to mention that he has been caught red-handed trying to cancel elections, and that he has restored them only because of the legal action of Reform UK. I do not expect him to thank us, but could he at least do the decent and honourable thing and apologise for the confusion and chaos caused to hundreds of council officers across the country, apologise to some 5 million voters, and then resign?

• 23 Feb 2026 · Schools White Paper: Every Child Achieving and Thriving · Hansard source

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  There is much in these SEND reforms that will reassure parents, particularly the reduction in the adversarial approach. I have spoken before of my concerns about excessive fees and profits of private equity-owned specialist schools. Will the Secretary of State confirm whether the legislation can be accelerated to reduce the pressure on council budgets?

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  A year ago, the then Deputy Prime Minister assured us and promised us that none of the delays would be for more than a year, yet five of the current 29 that are going to be delayed are from last year, and 21 of the 29 are Labour-controlled councils. The Secretary of State is aware that we have a judicial review that is due to be heard in February. I obviously do not want him to comment on the case, but can he confirm that, as this Government believe in the rules-based order, they will adhere to and comply with the rulings of the judge?

• 14 Jan 2026 · West Midlands Police · Hansard source

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  The Home Secretary has rightly lost confidence in the West Midlands chief constable, who kowtowed to thugs, abandoned the Jewish community and blamed Jewish fans. The question for the Home Secretary now is this: if the police and crime commissioner fails to fire the chief constable, will she still have confidence in that commissioner, and will she make the new legislation retrospective, to ensure that action is delivered?

• 5 Jan 2026 · Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief · Hansard source

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  This partial U-turn on the dreadful family farm tax is partially welcomed by farmers in Boston and Skegness, but where is the Chancellor to come and admit the error of her ways? Jobs have been lost, investment has been slashed and, tragically, lives have been lost by this grief tax. Will the Minister, at the third time of asking, apologise to the farming community?

• 18 Dec 2025 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  Merry Christmas!

• 18 Dec 2025 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  The Minister is doing a noble job of defending the absolutely indefensible cancellation of further elections, but where is the Secretary of State who just two days ago told this House, I am sure in good faith, that the elections would go ahead? The Minister needs to explain what has changed in the last 48 hours; otherwise, MPs are left with the regrettable conclusion that the Secretary of State inadvertently misled the House.

• 26 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  The good news is that when Reform wins more and more elections next May, we will be able to get better value for council tax across the whole country. I will keep going. Over the next five years, welfare spending will increase by £70 billion per annum. That shows that this is not a Budget for workers; it is a Budget for those on welfare. It reduces the incentive to work, and it reduces the incentive to be an entrepreneur or a small business owner.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Pension Investment in UK Equities · Hansard source

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  It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen) on securing this debate. In reality, equity investment from pensions is deteriorating because UK equities are not performing relative to their global counterparts. One of the reasons for that is that we have become over-regulated and over-taxed. When the big bang was launched 40 years ago, the City of London became the most important financial centre in the whole world. In the last 10 years, that has changed. That is why, at Bloomberg a couple of weeks ago, I announced the creation of four key working groups to look at a complete reset—a sort of big bang 2. We need to look again at the whole issue of regulation, and at the status of the FCA relative to the PRA and the Bank of England—that is working group No. 1. Working group No. 2 is on pensions and savings. We also need to consider big-picture issues: why, for example, are we giving tax relief on £300 billion of cash ISAs? How does that help the UK economy? Those are the big questions that we need to look at. The third working group is on small and medium-sized enterprise growth capital. The right hon. Member for Salisbury asked why it is that on second, third and fourth-phase rounds of fundraising, companies are going elsewhere in the world. The truth is that our markets have become too difficult for raising that additional capital. The fourth working group that I have set up—and it will report in six to nine months’ time—is on taxation. We are over-taxed, and we enjoy the longest tax code in the world. At 24,000 pages, it is four times the combined works of “Harry Potter” and nothing like as much fun. We need to look again at all those issues, and then we need to look at the performance of our pension funds. If we look at the performance of one of the biggest pension funds in the world, the local government pension schemes, which I have been very focused on, we will see that they are being overcharged substantially, by a factor of about five of what they should be paying, and they are underperforming. In the year to March ’25, the LGPS produced a great performance—not—of 3.3%, yet paid out over £2 billion in fees. Frankly, if the active funds cannot match the tracker, why not use a tracker? That is the challenge for the active industry. One of the reasons that the LGPS is underperforming is because too much of them are invested in unlisted funds, and now invested in what I would call quite woke funds, but that is a whole different issue. People cannot get out of those unlisted funds, which are at 20% to 40%, and those funds cannot be properly valued. The fees are much higher and they are not performing as well. Those are the key reasons why the performance is deteriorating. The 10, 20 and 30-year track records of the local government pension schemes are all at over 7% in the long term, but in the short term, they are rapidly deteriorating because of wrong investment decisions and overpaying fees, and because we have a market in the UK that is over-regulated and over-taxed. All of those things reduce the incentive to invest. For many people, it is complicated, but fundamentally, if the active fund managers overcharge and underperform, we should not be surprised if investors end up going elsewhere, and that might mean overseas. We need to change the way we look at things, deregulate sensibly and reduce unnecessary taxation in order to improve the quantity of pensions invested in UK-listed equities.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Points of Order · Hansard source

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  I am most grateful, Madam Deputy Speaker. The hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen may have possibly inadvertently misled the House with regard to Lancashire county council and nursery funding. The reality is that, unfortunately, as a result, the Prime Minister gave an answer based on that possible inadvertent misinformation. The truth is that Lancashire county council is carrying out a statutory consultation on whether to follow the example of Labour-controlled councils such as Blackburn and Blackpool in having a small, modest processing fee.