Reform UK conference: Richard Tice attacks 'high tax' Tories

The leader of Reform UK has criticised the Conservatives as a party of "high tax" that has forgotten its "basic economic model".

In a speech, Richard Tice said the Tories and Labour were now "outbidding each other" on taxation.

Reform, formerly known as the Brexit Party, is holding a conference in Manchester at the same time as the Tories.

It is the party's first gathering since Mr Tice took over from Nigel Farage.

Mr Farage stood down in May, saying he wanted to stand back from party politics to "shift public opinion" through the media and social media.

In a speech targeting disaffected Tories, Mr Tice branded the Conservatives the "Con-socialists" and pledged to offer a lower-tax vision at the next election.

It comes after Boris Johnson last month announced a hike in National Insurance and dividend taxes to spend on social care and the NHS.

"The Con-socialists are now the party of high tax, high regulation, nanny state - and all of that leads to low growth," Mr Tice told party activists.

"We didn't do Brexit to become a highly taxed, highly regulated, boring European social democracy.

"We did it to become a dynamic, bold, ambitious, low-tax, smartly regulated turbo of a nation that is the envy of the world."

Mr Tice said his party expected to field around 600 candidates at the next general election, with 300 already vetted and "being trained as we speak".

And in contrast to former leader Mr Farage, who did not stand in Tory-held seats at the 2019 election, he vowed: "We are not standing down against Tories anywhere."

He said his party would stand on a low-tax, low-regulation platform, arguing this would boost the economy and in turn jobs and wages.

"It's a basic economic model that the Tories seem to have forgotten," he added.

His party wants to increase the thresholds at which individuals start paying income tax from £12,500 to £20,000, and exempt the smallest businesses from corporation tax.

He also hit out at the Conservatives' plans to decarbonise the economy, saying: "It is not net zero - it is literally net stupid."

He said the Tories' green plans were "delusional", "not achievable" and would "impoverish millions and millions of the least well off".

He said the UK should instead focus on exploiting reserves of shale gas, and ensure energy companies are owned by the government or British pension funds to stop profits going abroad.

Speaking to the BBC's Andrew Marr earlier, the prime minister did not rule out further tax rises but said he was a "zealous opponent of unnecessary tax rises".

However, he warned the pandemic had hit the UK's economy like a "fiscal meteorite".

"We don't want to raise taxes, of course we don't, but what we will not do is be irresponsible with the public finances," he added.