Who is Richard Tice? The ex-Reform UK leader replaced by Nigel Farage
Here's what you need to know about Richard Tice, the businessman who describes himself as "a no-nonsense, can-do type of person who gets things done".
Wednesday 12 June 2024 14:36, UK
With a matter of weeks until 4 July, Richard Tice was heading towards his first general election as Reform UK leader.
That was until Nigel Farage performed a screeching U-turn, announcing he would stand as a candidate in Clacton and take over as the party's leader for at least the next five years.
Mr Tice, now the party's chairman, had previously promised to put up a candidate in every seat in England, Scotland and Wales at the general election.
He originally kicked off his campaign by saying he would be "pleased" if he could help "punish the utter failure of the Conservative Party" - while labelling a Labour win "Starmergeddon".
Here's what you need to know about Mr Tice, who describes himself on his website as "a no-nonsense, can-do type of person who gets things done".
What is Reform UK?
Mr Farage founded Reform UK - originally called the Brexit Party - two years after he quit as UKIP leader after the 2016 EU referendum.
He formed it to lobby the government on its handling of the Brexit negotiations, but changed the party's name in 2020 to reflect its new goal of campaigning for changes to the electoral system.
Reform is on the right of the Tory party and is mainly focused on cutting immigration.
Mr Farage had ruled out putting himself forward, instead promising to help what was Mr Tice's party as it campaigned across the country.
However, just a week later, he announced he had changed his mind, claiming he had a "terrible sense of guilt" for not putting himself forward when the election was called and felt he was "letting [his supporters] down".
Where did Reform UK come from and what are their policies?
When did Mr Tice take over as leader?
Mr Tice replaced Mr Farage when he stood down in 2021, saying Brexit had been his "life's work" and had taken over "the best part of three decades" but that it was time to step away.
It marked a meteoric rise in politics for Mr Tice, who officially left the Conservative Party and joined the Brexit Party as chairman in April 2019, having been a Tory member for much of his adult life.
He became a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Brexit Party just six weeks after he joined, serving until 2020. Two years later he became leader of the party, now Reform UK, saying it was "an honour" to take over from Mr Farage.
He may not have been a household name before becoming leader, but Mr Tice was already a significant figure in the push for Brexit.
He was one of the founders of the Leave Means Leave campaign and co-founded the group Leave.EU with fellow businessman Arron Banks, who labelled the group the "Bad Boys of Brexit".
That group was fined £70,000 in 2018 for breaches of electoral law during the EU referendum campaign.
Securing Reform's first MP
In a huge move for the party, Mr Tice secured his first MP in former Conservative deputy chair Lee Anderson in March 2024.
Mr Anderson, who won Ashfield in 2019, was kicked out of the parliamentary Conservative Party for refusing to apologise after alleging that London mayor Sadiq Khan was controlled by "Islamists".
Mr Tice said the MP would be a "champion of the red wall", who would "tell it as it is, with no nonsense, no waffle".
Only a few months earlier, Mr Anderson had dubbed Mr Tice a "pound shop Nigel Farage".
He also said Mr Tice needed to "pipe down a little bit" amid tensions between the Tories and Reform and claimed his actions were helping Sir Keir Starmer become prime minister at the next election.
But Mr Tice showed no signs of relieving pressure on the Tories after Mr Anderson joined his party.
He told Sky News: "We're very clear; we're going to replace the Tories as the main alternative to Labour in those red wall seats starting with this election."
He also said the party was having "confidential" conversations with other Conservative MPs about switching allegiances and said he would be "surprised" if there wasn't more than one Reform MP by the next general election, provided it isn't called for May.
He added the Tory party had become full of "con socialists".
Over 30 years in property
The grandson of famous property developer Bernard Sunley, Mr Tice says he knew as a teenager that he wanted to "continue the family genes in the property industry".
He got a graduate job in London in 1987 for the property company London and Metropolitan, having studied Quantity Surveying and Construction Economics at Salford University in Greater Manchester.
He joined his family's property company, The Sunley Group, in 1991, becoming a director alongside other family members in 1993 before resigning in 2006.
Between 2006 and 2009 he ran his own debt advisory consultancy, before joining CLS Holdings, a large multinational real estate group, as chief executive in 2010.
He led the company, which says it boasts a £2.21bn portfolio, until early 2014, when he stepped down "to spend more time with his family and pursue new challenges".
Mr Tice said the company, which led two major planning applications for a new square in Vauxhall, south London, during his tenure, was making £70m a year in profit when he left.
Mr Tice found his "new challenge" the same year, joining investment and asset management group Quidnet Capital as chief executive.
He's been there ever since, leading the company which manages around £500m worth of commercial properties across the UK on behalf of its clients.
Mr Tice's early life
Mr Tice was born in Surrey in 1964 and grew up in the Midlands.
He went to Uppingham School, a secondary boarding school in Rutland, where he is now vice-chairman of trustees and chair of the finance committee.
He later went to Salford University, but he says before that he had odd jobs with the Post Office and behind the bar.
He jokes on his website that his property career technically began at the age of 18 in 1983, when he dug foundations in the snow in January 1983 "with some Irish labourers from whom I learnt some fruity language and very rude jokes".
He now has three children, one of whom also works in property. He was with their mother for over 20 years before they divorced in 2019.
Since 2018 he has been in a relationship with Isabel Oakeshott, the Telegraph journalist who reported on Matt Hancock's leaked WhatsApp messages.