Richard Tice claims world was 'safer place' under Donald Trump than under Joe Biden

26 May 2024, 13:18 | Updated: 26 May 2024, 13:28

Richard Tice, leader of Reform UK, has told LBC that the world was a safer place when Donald Trump was president of the US than under Joe Biden.

Speaking to Lewis Goodall on Sunday morning, Mr Tice said whatever people thought about his personality, the world was a "safer place" under Trump "from a global safety point of view".

"Putin wouldn't have gone into Ukraine" during a Trump Presidency.

"It's about respect and fear and Putin feared Donald Trump.

"He didn't fear President Biden," he added.

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Richard Tice says the 'world was safer under Donald Trump than Joe Biden'

Mr Tice said Mr Farage is going to get "stuck in" campaigning for Reform for the upcoming election.

He told LBC: "I said the more help you can give the better and it's a big personal decision.

'Nice on paper'

Regarding the government's proposed new national service for 18-year-olds, he said: "It sounds nice on paper, in theory, until dig down about a few centimetres, to realise actually in practice, in reality it's completely unworkable, the military don't want it.

"You've only got 75,000 people in the army and they can't work it, that used to be 100,000 people ten years ago.

"You could say that some form of civic duty, contribution to national life could be very sensible, but you've got to look in the details they've clearly just thrown this out there as a complete gimmick, because they're terrified of Reform, they're after our voters because they're absolutely terrified.

"The truth is they've called this snap election because they were terrified of the fact we're going up in the polls, they're sinking in the polls, under sinking Sunak and they had to say how do we stop this and so they're just throwing anything out that might be some sort of food for our voters, our reality is our vote is rock solid."

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When speaking about the economy, he said: "On income tax we'll lift the starting point threshold to £20,000 that takes 7million people out of paying any income tax, we're the party of the working class, that's what that proves.

"We're the only party that's saying actually you've got to invest in health care, an extra £17bn a year, you've got to use the independent health care sector, there is capacity in the independent sector.

"If you scrap Net Zero, that's going to make no difference to global climate change, that's £30bn a year, if you cut out back-office waste £5 in £100, there's vast waste all over the place, that's £50 billion a year.

"The government is wasting money everywhere and that's the reason we're not growing."

Then, on the topic of Michael Gove standing down, he said: “He’s given a lot to British politics, am I sad to see him go, no, I think he’s failed to enact Brexit properly, and so I feel he’s part of the team that have betrayed the opportunity of Brexit so far.”

He added: “I’d like more votes than the Tory party and I think that’s possible.”

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Nigel Farage has said he was preparing to launch a campaign next week to stand as an MP before the Prime Minister announced the General Election date.

On Thursday morning, he announced in a statement that he would not stand as a Reform UK candidate in the upcoming election but that he will "do my bit to help" the party in the UK campaign.

"I have always said that there will be a moment when I throw my hat in the ring fully into British politics. I've also said aged 60, I've got one more card to play and it's about when I play it.

"I had, to be honest with you, put in place some preparations to launch next week.

"I wonder whether the Conservative Party found out about it. I think the sense of panic that we saw yesterday, the badly prepared speech, might perhaps have prompted it a little bit."

Asked to clarify that he was referring to launching a campaign to stand as an MP, he confirmed saying: "Yes, absolutely."

But Mr Farage admitted the Prime Minister had "wrong-footed" him by calling an election for July 4.