Richard Tice, eco-warrior

Reform UK is rapidly getting used to charges of hypocrisy. Nigel Farage went to the US to bemoan an assault on free speech in the UK, even as a Reform-run council stopped the Nottingham Post from speaking to its councillors, and banned The New World from its conference.

Meanwhile, Farage himself attacked Angela Rayner for underpaying stamp duty, even as he battled questions over his partner’s purchase of a home in his Clacton constituency. But a dig into financial records suggests Reform’s top team might be saying one thing and doing another in a different policy area, too.

The Reform conference wasted no time attacking solar panels and net zero during the event, with former Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns leading the charge, having called net zero “a con” that is “bankrupting Britain”, and condemning solar installations in the countryside. Reform plans to follow in Donald Trump’s footsteps and introduce taxes on solar farms.

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In public, the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice, seems to agree, having called renewable power a “massive con”. But it seems Tice would be among those paying Reform’s new taxes. In February, the Guardian reported that a farm and horse racing business owned by Tice had installed solar panels and battery storage.

That is far from Tice’s first foray into renewables, though. Tice co-owns Quidnet Reid Ltd, a business operating industrial estates across the country. In its accounts for 2022, the company celebrated installing solar on three sites, noting that “these initiatives will save hundreds of tonnes of CO2 every year and help our occupiers with lower electricity bills… as well as provide an attractive return to shareholders”.

Tice’s business didn’t stop there. “The company continued its initiatives with more solar panels installed”, its official accounts for 2023 state. Quidnet Reid also installed super fast electric car chargers, cheerily noting that “demand for these is picking up well”. The most recent accounts, filed just a few months ago, are a little more reserved – perhaps due to Tice’s new political prominence. Still, they note that “during the year the company continued its sustainability initiatives”. Does Reform have a secret eco-warrior in its midst?