It’s only bad when other people do it, explains Richard Tice

Richard Tice has clarified the apparent contradiction between his previous calls for Angela Rayner to resign over a tax issue and his current insistence that he himself should absolutely not resign over a tax issue, by confirming that they are very different “just because”.

Speaking slowly, as if explaining fire to a Victorian child, Tice said, “When Angela Rayner underpays tax, that’s a shocking breach of public trust that demands immediate resignation. When I underpay tax, that’s an administrative curiosity which may, at some point, be looked at by someone with a calculator.”

Tice, who had previously described Rayner’s situation as “untenable”, confirmed that his own position remains “perfectly tenable, extremely comfortable, and indeed furnished with lashings of plausible deniability.”

Sources close to Reform UK say the party has long operated a “flexible morality framework”, in which actions are judged not by what they are, but by who is doing them and whether it’s currently useful to be outraged by them.

A party insider explained, “It’s actually very simple. If it’s them, it’s corruption. If it’s us, it’s an administrative error. If it turns out not to be an error, it’s still not corruption, it’s just… a more complicated error.”

Tice himself rejected accusations of hypocrisy, describing them as “lazy” and “entirely accurate but missing the point”.

“The point,” he continued, “is that voters expect consistency. And I am being entirely consistent. I consistently believe that other people should face consequences, and I consistently believe that my Reform colleagues and I, should not.”

At press time, Tice was reportedly preparing a strongly worded statement condemning the growing trend of politicians being held publicly accountable for things they have definitely done and things they have definitely said.