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Richard Tice: The Conservatives? More like the Con-Socialists

Reform UK leader Richard Tice is the latest guest on The Telegraph's weekly podcast, Planet Normal, hosted by columnists Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan
Reform UK leader Richard Tice is the latest guest on The Telegraph's weekly podcast, Planet Normal, hosted by columnists Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan

"The government has decided to impose Austerity Mark Two on the population when actually what we need to do is to grow out of the crisis" Richard Tice tells Telegraph columnist Liam Halligan.

The head of the Reform Party, formerly the Brexit Party, expresses his concerns about what he sees as a shift in the Conservative party in this week's Planet Normal podcast, which you can listen to on the audio player above.

"I've started to call them the Con-Socialists, because they genuinely are no longer standing up for what most conservative voters believe is a fundamental principle of being a conservative. You want to have a smaller state, you want to cut taxes, you want to create higher growth, and that will lead to higher wages and better public services. And all of that seems to have been completely lost, completely forgotten, completely ignored in individual's pursuits of cabinet positions."

The prominent Brexit campaigner, who set up the Brexit Party with Nigel Farage and relaunched it as Reform UK in January, also said recent Conservative tax measures brought in to pay for social care went against the spirit of leaving the EU.

"We didn't do Brexit, in my view, to be a highly taxed, highly regulated European social democracy. We did it to become a lowly taxed, smartly regulated, 'Singapore off the coast of Europe'."

Listen to Richard Tice's full interview on Planet Normal, a weekly Telegraph podcast by Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan, featuring news and views from beyond the bubble. Use the audio player above or subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast app.