Richard Tice to make major Reform UK announcement in emergency press conference today

Reform UK is set to make a huge announcement this morning, with leader Richard Tice taking the stage at 10:30.

The event, which will be live-streamed, is promised to be “major”, and will only help the third-place party that has been steadily climbing in the polls.

One poll at the end of last week put Mr Tice’s party just five percentage points behind the Tories on their highest-ever rating.

Another poll just over a week ago saw Reform UK sitting at 14 percent of the vote – their highest recorded support ever.

Recently the media has focussed on two key questions surrounding Reform UK: potential defections by Tory MPs, and the role Nigel Farage may play in the General Election.

At a new year press conference in January, Mr Tice warned he wants to wipe the Conservatives out at the election to ensure they “never have a majority government again”.

However he also slammed Sir Keir Starmer as “soft” on migration, and warned Labour’s economic plans would “bankrupt” Britain.

Reform UK said: “We feel the Tory party is a smoking wreck in shallow water, there is no point in continuing to target them exclusively. We will target Labour.”

In February, speculation around the future of Lee Anderson mounted after his suspension from the Conservative Party, with a meeting between the pair in Derbyshire revealed by GB News on the 27th.

Asked whether he would join Reform UK, Mr Anderson said he had “been on a political journey”, but he wouldn’t comment on any future plans.

At the same time, Mr Tice claimed he had actively turned down two Tory MPs who tried to defect last year as they only want MPs who “subscribe to our values, our principles, our integrity”.

The other big question is over Mr Farage’s potential role within the party come the General Election.

While he’s said he’s unlikely to stand as a candidate, should the former Ukip and Brexit Party leader return to the helm of Reform UK as an active campaigner he will likely grab huge media attention and increase the party’s threat to Tory seats.

Responding to last week’s Budget, Mr Tice slammed Jeremy Hunt’s announcements as “proof that you can’t polish a turd”.

He fumed: “This Budget continues more wasteful government spending, wasting tens of billions on net zero.

“The Bank of England continues to waste tens of billions of your cash on enriching city institutions.

“He’s frozen the tax thresholds on income tax. He hasn’t listened to Reform UK’s excellent plans to create genuine economic growth.

“This is a Budget by the Tories that will mean no growth and all of us will feel worse off, poorer and frankly it’s just more of the same.

“The sooner the election comes, the sooner we kick them out, the better.”