Reform UK leader gives ‘guarantee’ that it won’t step aside for Tories at election

Richard Tice’s ‘cast-iron’ pledge appears to be an attempt to ease internal tensions in the party. Photograph: Martin Pope/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

The leader of Reform UK has given “cast-iron guarantees” to senior members of his rightwing populist party that it will not step aside for the Conservatives at the forthcoming general election.

The Tories won a majority in 2019 after Reform’s previous incarnation, the Brexit party, did not field any candidates against them in the 317 seats which the Conservatives won in 2017, in return for Boris Johnson’s commitment to leave the EU by 2020 before pursuing a Canada-style trade deal.