Richard Tice MP: speeches

Speeches

• 2 Jul 2025 · British Indian Ocean Territory: Sovereignty · Hansard source

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  While China might support this terrible deal, let me tell the Minister that the British people do not support this appalling deal, giving away our strategic security asset and paying tens of billions of our taxpayers’ money in the process. Our taxpayers will be suffering tax rises for that in order that the Mauritians get tax cuts. Since the Government are in the mood for U-turns, why do they not take the hint and U-turn on this terrible Chagos deal?

• 30 Jun 2025 · Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery · Hansard source

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  I understand that Lindsey oil refinery has gone bust because it was uncompetitive because of high energy prices, just months after Grangemouth closed. We are witnessing the disappearance of the oil refining sector in this country because of high energy costs. We are witnessing the deindustrialisation of Britain because of high energy costs because of this Government’s obsession with net stupid zero—that is the harsh reality. That is the simple fact, and thousands of jobs are disappearing in front of our eyes. The Minister accepts that our energy costs are too high, and the Government promise that energy bills will come down, so could he tell the British people when?

• 23 Jun 2025 · UK Modern Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  This 138-page industrial strategy highlights the key problem facing British industry: high energy prices. The Secretary of State is putting in place some measures to reduce them, but surely he could do that earlier than 2027 by removing some of the green levies of net stupid zero sooner. When will energy prices come down for all of British industry?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  It is important to celebrate awards given to hon. colleagues, so will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating both the Deputy Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner), and my hon. Friend the Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) on winning the award in their respective categories as Britain’s sexiest politicians on that well-known website illicitencounters.com? Does she recommend that they have dinner together?

• 18 Jun 2025 · HS2 Reset · Hansard source

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  It may surprise the Secretary of State, but I actually have some sympathy for her for inheriting the HS2 nightmare. When she receives the updated budget and timeframe, will there be a cost and a timeline at which point she will say, “Enough is enough—it’s better to stop,” or is it an open-ended cheque book?

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  The Chancellor supposedly inherited a black hole, and she has dug a crater into which public confidence and business confidence are plunging. The truth is that 250,000 jobs have disappeared since the blunder Budget. Despite all the noise we hear from those on the Government Benches, the reality is that Government spending is completely out of control. Inflation is up, unemployment is up, Government borrowing is up and the cost of Government borrowing is up. The only things that are going down are jobs and GDP. I have some good news for the Chancellor, however. The 10 councils that we control are already identifying savings of hundreds of millions of pounds. She may want to learn some lessons. That is why Reform is leading in the polls.

• 22 May 2025 · EU-UK Summit · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey. This week will go down in parliamentary history as the week of the greatest surrender. It was bookended by the surrendering at the beginning of the week of the valuable freedoms won from the European Union through the joys of Brexit, and by today’s surrendering of our valuable freehold of the Chagos islands, on which there will be a statement later. I think many members of the British public will be confused, because last week the Government were talking about the joys of the freedoms of Brexit—to be able to do trade deals with India and with the United States—but, all of a sudden, this week they have gone back to the fog of surrender by handcuffing us very closely to the European Union. There is a rule in business that has been deployed many times by parliamentarians: nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Normally with the EU there is a last-minute drama, but this time was different, because little was agreed and everything was conceded. That is the bottom line. Little has actually been agreed, and everything has been conceded in an extraordinary act of surrender. To use another expression, it is the thin end of the wedge. The EU cannot believe its luck; it has opened the door and stuck the little wedge in there, and it has now got lots of things that it is still negotiating on. Every time, its representatives will say, “Well, you’ve got to agree this before we move on to the next one.” We have heard it all before, yet the Government have learned nothing. The first surrender is very dear to my constituents in Boston. My fishermen are raging and furious because they assumed that after the end of this first-phase deal, more quotas would be negotiated back to the UK, they would be beneficiaries and we would take back more control of our waters. Instead, it is all been conceded—for 12 years. It is gone.

• 22 May 2025 · EU-UK Summit · Hansard source

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  That is the point—my hon. Friend is bang on. There is a sizeable number of people under 30: it may be 60 million or 70 million—who knows? We have huge pressure on our housing, a determination to increase wages for British citizens, and pressure on our healthcare. Just a couple of weeks ago, the British people clearly expressed their opinion in the local elections and backed Reform UK’s net zero immigration policy. They said, “Actually, we quite like that,” which is why, of course, we did so well. The ability to listen to the British people’s concerns may have been lost.

• 22 May 2025 · EU-UK Summit · Hansard source

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  The renewable energy industry is receiving subsidies of tens of billions of pounds, which are added to all our household bills. The wholesale cost of energy is between 30% and 35% of the total cost of energy, so all the rest is subsidies, policy costs, transmission costs and profit. If we scrap net stupid zero, we drive down prices. Instead, the deal will handcuff us for evermore to higher bills; it will not reduce bills in any way.

• 22 May 2025 · EU-UK Summit · Hansard source

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  The honest truth is that, yes, there might be some—[Hon. Members: “Ah!”] But the truth is that they do not want 10, 20 or 50 times more coming into Boston and Skegness, taking their jobs and suppressing their wages. That is the reality for my constituents.

• 22 May 2025 · EU-UK Summit · Hansard source

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  That is absolutely right. In my constituency, young people want better and better-paid jobs. They do not want wages to be suppressed.

• 22 May 2025 · EU-UK Summit · Hansard source

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  I did not say anything about downplaying; I said that if the Government are going to agree a deal, they should agree the terms of the deal. They should not just say, “We’d like a bit of the action. Please tell us how much it’ll cost us later,” and have no idea how much of the action they will get. That is a terrible deal, and we all know that no deal is better than a bad deal. The third surrender is about becoming a rule-taker. The hon. Member for Walthamstow (Ms Creasy) referred to agrifoods and the SPS deal, which all sounds very good, except that we now have to take a load of extra rules from Brussels that we have no input into under a process called dynamic alignment, which might mean that we cannot do any further trade deals with great nations such as the United States. That is instead of arguing for mutual recognition, which can of course exist between nations that have excellent standards of food and products, as we do. We have gained nothing from those three great surrenders. Indeed, we will probably have to pay more if we want any more rules to be given to us, but why would we pay more when we have given ourselves the freedom not to have to pay? I thought we had done all of that. If we are not content with that, what about the fourth surrender—the big one? Earlier this year, the Minister said, “Don’t worry, chaps—no plans for any form of youth mobility scheme.” It turns out that he was right, because some clever person rebadged it: “I’ve got an idea. Let’s call it a youth experience scheme.” Well, I am sure it is a lovely experience, but when someone is 30 years old, are they still a youth? Is it a middle age experience scheme? During the negotiation—because it has not been concluded —I can see that it will then become an old age experience scheme. Then, someone will say, “Hang on, if it’s an old age experience scheme, we don’t have the workers to look after the old people from the EU who’ve come over to our glorious care homes.” So then we will have to have more freedom of movement.

• 22 May 2025 · EU-UK Summit · Hansard source

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  That is a good question. I know that in my constituency, not a single one of the big logistics companies or big farmers, or any of the supermarkets, who all know my position, has got in touch with me and said, “Richard, you’re wrong on this. This is a great deal,” so perhaps the Prime Minister and the Government have overstated that point. The great opportunities of Brexit—the ability to take back control, be a sovereign nation and make our own independent sovereign deals, which we got excited about under the Government’s leadership last week—have all now been given up. They have been strangled and handcuffed, and they have been handcuffed to a failing economic model where the biggest economy, Germany, is in recession—it is struggling; it has even more problems than our economy. I ask hon. Members: why would we handcuff ourselves to a failing economic model for evermore?

• 22 May 2025 · Diego Garcia Military Base · Hansard source

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  The Mauritians have never ever owned the Chagos islands. When they gained independence from the United Kingdom in the 1960s, the UK paid them millions of pounds to cede any future claims over the sovereignty of the Chagos islands. The Defence Secretary has confirmed the strategic importance of the Chagos islands, and we all agree on that, but the truth is that this is the worst ever deal in history by this country. Over 100 years we are paying, with inflation, over £40 billion to give away a strategically important security asset. The truth is, and I confirm it now, that when Reform wins the next general election, we will rip up this deal—tear it up—and stop all future payments. It is a disgrace.

• 20 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  In Boston and Skegness, my fishermen are furious that the Prime Minister has surrendered the fishing industry. My constituents are furious that he has surrendered on freedom of movement and on rule taking under the ECJ. But there is good news: does Prime Minister accept that he has also surrendered the jobs of many of his Back-Bench MPs to Reform at the next general election?

• 15 May 2025 · Solar Farms · Hansard source

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  Obviously, I like to bring people together in consensus, and I think there is consensus in the House that there is a place for solar—on roofs. Of course, I like to lead by example, so I have put solar panels on the roofs of my industrial buildings. Then, one can sell electricity to the occupier beneath and ease the considerable pressure on the national grid. Surely solar farms are completely inappropriate. We have been hearing about thousands and thousands of acres of solar farms. In the great, glorious county of Lincolnshire, there are applications and plans for 40,000 acres of solar panels on top-quality farmland. That is completely inappropriate. It would destroy not only that farmland, but—this has not been mentioned—great jobs in the county of Lincolnshire for the next 20 to 30 years. That is absolute madness. It is also so unfair. Those living in a village or small town in the countryside might all of a sudden find themselves surrounded not by glorious fields, but by black plastic. There is no justification for that, or fairness in it.

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  I can understand why the right hon. Member did not want to answer the two questions from the Opposition on dynamic alignment, but surely, given a third opportunity, he will commit the Government not to have dynamic alignment in any way, so that we can benefit from trade deals around the world—a great Brexit benefit.

• 22 Apr 2025 · British Steel · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her statement and the good news about the saving of British Steel. She has not referred to the timetable for moving towards nationalisation, which we fully support and encourage the Government to push on with, so that they can accelerate towards the modernisation programme that she referred to. The new-found love of this House for blast furnaces should be encouraged, and we should be refurbishing and investing in them. That is the right thing to do to create a thriving steel industry to support British industry and our defence industry.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  Given that the Secretary of State has inferred that the owner, Jingye, is not and has not acted in good faith, surely the right thing to do is to seize this great opportunity now, this weekend, and nationalise British Steel?

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  rose —

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend the Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) and I have been calling for British Steel to be a strategic national corporation for some six years. We said to the previous Administration that the last thing they should do is sell it to the Chinese, but they ignored our splendid advice. The industry requires long-term investment. The problem, as we all know, is that it has been beset by short-termism and short-term thinking, as well as by the vast electricity costs in this country, partly caused by net stupid zero and the carbon tariff. There is now a great opportunity for the House to unify. As the Secretary of State confirmed, we have the opportunity to take British Steel into public ownership—this weekend, we would urge, for the sum of £1. We could do a great deal for the taxpayer. We should invest in refurbishing and relining these blast furnaces, in the same way that the French are doing in Dunkirk. They are spending a quarter of a billion euros in Dunkirk, and we should do the same. We should bring in excellent global expertise to help British Steel. There will be opportunities if we do those things and have long-term procurement contracts for raw materials, including the opportunity to use British coal from Cumbria. That is an opportunity that the Government declined, but it would create more jobs and save on transport costs. There is also the opportunity for long-term procurement contracts for British Steel products. Those are opportunities to make British Steel a long-term, viable business for the taxpayer. We can bring in long-term patient capital. If we do those things, we can get everything that we want. Primary steelmaking is a vital strategic asset, and Scunthorpe can be its epicentre. We will support the Government’s Bill today, but there is an opportunity to go further, to be bold and to be courageous. The Secretary of State should show his cajones and show some mettle. This weekend, he and the Government have the opportunity to remove the uncertainty for 3,000 families in Scunthorpe. Let us go for it. Let us nationalise British Steel this weekend and make British steel great again.

• 7 Apr 2025 · Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate · Hansard source

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  The Transport Secretary omitted to mention that UK car production last year was at its lowest level for 70 years, aside from the pandemic; that UK car production this year is down a further 11%; and that total registrations of electric and hybrid cars this year are down another 2%. Will the Minister agree that the best thing to do to ensure growth and increase production is to scrap all these ridiculous zero emission targets forthwith?

• 7 Apr 2025 · Scunthorpe Steelworks · Hansard source

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  About 10 days ago, I urged the Minister and the Government to use this decision by the Chinese to close British Steel as an opportunity to take British Steel into public ownership. The situation is urgent. It has stopped ordering the raw materials for the blast furnaces, and unless those raw materials are ordered within about 10 days, those blast furnaces will go cold in mid-May. The Minister says that no options are off the table. Will she confirm that the Government will make those decisions and come to a conclusion about the options within this very short timeframe to ensure that the blast furnaces stay open, and that the right long-term solution is to take British Steel into public ownership and invest in it for British industry, for British Steel and for the workers in Lincolnshire?

• 27 Mar 2025 · Scunthorpe Steelworks · Hansard source

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  We all know that steel, and particularly the ability to make primary steel, is a critical national industry. The Chinese might be giving up on British steel, but the British people do not want to give up on British steel, nor should we allow the final two blast furnaces to close. May I urge the Minister to take this not as a negative, but as an opportunity to be positive? We should take British Steel into public ownership and create a long-term, 20 to 30-year positive plan to invest in steelmaking for British industry and for our defence industry.

• 20 Mar 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  My constituents will be concerned by reports in the media this morning about a Government report that shows the cost of net zero will: impact negatively on GDP by 2030 by some 10%, increase national debt, increase the risk of a financial crisis, and hit the poorest the hardest. Given that the report was suppressed from the Department for Business and Trade by the previous Government, and given this Government’s enthusiasm for transparency, will the Leader of the House confirm that the report will now be released to the public to enhance debate on this issue?