'Floundering' Reform UK chief fails to know names of new Scottish defectors amid Glasgow chaos
Richard Tice has been accused of “floundered under basic questioning” after failed to know the names of two Scottish councillors that have defected to his Reform UK party from the Conservatives.
The deputy leader of Reform UK has been accused of “floundering” after he was unable to name two councillor defectors he had come to Glasgow to announce.
Richard Tice visited the Val D’oro chip shop in Glasgow as it was announced Ross Lambie from South Lanarkshire Council and John Gray from Renfrewshire Council have joined the party run by Nigel Farage as defections from the Scottish Conservatives.
But asked what his new colleagues' full names were and what local authorities they represented, all Mr Tice could tell journalists was “John and Ross”.
The gaffe came as Mr Tice set out his opposition to what he called “net stupid zero” and repeated his slogan of “drill Scotland drill”, claiming that Scots were being “conned” over the need to tackle the climate crisis as he vowed to take the Scottish economy back to the 1980s and 1990s.
Read more: How Nigel Farage's Reform UK aims to lob a grenade into Scottish politics
But Mr Tice’s visit and announcement was overshadowed by his failure to know the full names of his new colleagues and what local authorities they represented.
Asked “who are your defectors and what councils are they from”, Mr Tice said: “We’ve got John and Ross”.
Pressed repeatedly for his new recruits’ full name and council area, all Mr Tice could say over and over was “John and Ross”.
He added: “We’ve got 10,000 members. I don’t know all 10,000 members. What we have got is policies that will make people better off in Scotland.”
A Scottish Conservative spokesman said it was “an embarrassing moment for Reform’s deputy leader”.
He added: “You would expect him to have these names etched in his brain, yet he has floundered under basic questioning.”
Mr Tice pointed to the 1980s and 1990s when he said “we had a great oil and gas industry in Scotland”.
He added: “You had highly skilled, highly paid jobs. Those are being destroyed in their tens of thousands.
“We’re the only developed nation that has the incredible luxury of huge amounts of energy treasure under our feet and we’re being stupid enough not to use it. We’re calling out this nonsense.
“Net zero is going to be the key thing at the next general election and we plan to win it. The good people of Scotland realise they’re being conned, they're being lied to, they're being misled - and it’s an outrage. We’re going to take them on.
“That’s why Swinney and co are so absolutely terrified - because they know we’ve got the momentum, we’re going to make people in Scotland better off, we’re going to ensure that people are more prosperous and that’s what we want. “
The vast majority of scientists agree that cutting harmful emissions will curb the rise of global temperatures and is the only cred
Richard Tice has been accused of “floundered under basic questioning” after failed to know the names of two Scottish councillors that have defected to his Reform UK party from the Conservatives.
The deputy leader of Reform UK has been accused of “floundering” after he was unable to name two councillor defectors he had come to Glasgow to announce.
Richard Tice visited the Val D’oro chip shop in Glasgow as it was announced Ross Lambie from South Lanarkshire Council and John Gray from Renfrewshire Council have joined the party run by Nigel Farage as defections from the Scottish Conservatives.
But asked what his new colleagues' full names were and what local authorities they represented, all Mr Tice could tell journalists was “John and Ross”.
The gaffe came as Mr Tice set out his opposition to what he called “net stupid zero” and repeated his slogan of “drill Scotland drill”, claiming that Scots were being “conned” over the need to tackle the climate crisis as he vowed to take the Scottish economy back to the 1980s and 1990s.
Read more: How Nigel Farage's Reform UK aims to lob a grenade into Scottish politics
But Mr Tice’s visit and announcement was overshadowed by his failure to know the full names of his new colleagues and what local authorities they represented.
Asked “who are your defectors and what councils are they from”, Mr Tice said: “We’ve got John and Ross”.
Pressed repeatedly for his new recruits’ full name and council area, all Mr Tice could say over and over was “John and Ross”.
He added: “We’ve got 10,000 members. I don’t know all 10,000 members. What we have got is policies that will make people better off in Scotland.”
A Scottish Conservative spokesman said it was “an embarrassing moment for Reform’s deputy leader”.
He added: “You would expect him to have these names etched in his brain, yet he has floundered under basic questioning.”
Mr Tice pointed to the 1980s and 1990s when he said “we had a great oil and gas industry in Scotland”.
He added: “You had highly skilled, highly paid jobs. Those are being destroyed in their tens of thousands.
“We’re the only developed nation that has the incredible luxury of huge amounts of energy treasure under our feet and we’re being stupid enough not to use it. We’re calling out this nonsense.
“Net zero is going to be the key thing at the next general election and we plan to win it. The good people of Scotland realise they’re being conned, they're being lied to, they're being misled - and it’s an outrage. We’re going to take them on.
“That’s why Swinney and co are so absolutely terrified - because they know we’ve got the momentum, we’re going to make people in Scotland better off, we’re going to ensure that people are more prosperous and that’s what we want. “
The vast majority of scientists agree that cutting harmful emissions will curb the rise of global temperatures and is the only cred
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NewsTranscript
00:00Why do you think that is? Because of the madness of net stupid zero.
00:10Yeah.
00:11It's absolute insanity.
00:12100%.
00:13You've got to scrap it.
00:14This is the greatest act of financial self-harm ever imposed on Scotland, on jobs out of Scotland,
00:19by the morons in Westminster.
00:20Why is it?
00:21Can I interrupt?
00:22Why is it?
00:23Can I interrupt a minute?
00:24Richard.
00:25Yes, you're right, net zero and everything else, but the malaise goes way back.
00:29It does.
00:30What do you think of Ravenscraig?
00:31Yeah, we are.
00:32Look what's happening.
00:33My grandfather was one of the pioneers that went in and fed everybody that built Grangemouth.
00:38Look at it now.
00:39It's terrible.
00:40But all of that is because we've become uncompetitive, because we've got the highest energy prices
00:45and electricity prices in the Western world.
00:48Yes, but that's the reason.
00:49The money is going down the drain, and here we are in the most richest country in the world.
00:54Used to be.
00:55No, we're sitting on coal.
00:57We are.
00:58We are.
00:59Oil, gas, water, you name it, we've got it here in Scotland.
01:02I call it.
01:03I call it.
01:04So you're sitting on the biggest and the richest country in the world, and we have the most
01:10expensive electricity and gas.
01:12Madness.
01:13So I call it our energy treasure, and we should be using it and extracting it.
01:16We're the only developed nation in the world that is sitting on all that energy treasure
01:21and has stupidly decided not to use it.
01:23So Rosebank, Jackdaw, we should be using it.
01:26In the county where I'm an MP, Lincolnshire, we've just got a brand new gas field just
01:31being announced.
01:32A decade's worth of gas.
01:33We've got to use all this stuff.
01:34Richard, can I interrupt again?
01:36We don't need to go to the North Sea to get oil.
01:38We've got oil in the Clyde Valley, but we're never allowed that, because in the late 50s,
01:4359s, 60s, the Brits were desperate to get the nukes, and then the Yanks kept saying
01:47no, no, no, to eventually say, OK, we'll give you Vaseline, and the rest is history.
01:52We're not allowed that oil, a.k.a. Heseltine and his pals and Number 10 Downing Street.
01:57The oil is in the Clyde Valley.
01:59We've got plenty of oil and gas.
02:00We've just got to have the courage to use it.
02:02And there's a reason why the American economy is growing fast, and why it's going to grow
02:07even faster.
02:08Drill, baby, drill.
02:09And my motto, folks, Drill Scotland, Drill.
02:12Drill Scotland, Drill.