Farage is choosing to bury his head in the sand
Reform leader Nigel Farage has once more chosen to turn a blind eye to alleged wrongdoing in his party, this time refusing to commit to a probe into his Deputy Leader Richard Tice’s tax affairs over allegations he failed to pay £100,000 in corporation tax.
Pressure has been growing on Farage to take action against Tice, after the Sunday Times investigation accused the businessman of failing to pay £100,000 in corporation tax.
The paper revealed that Reform’s Deputy Leader ran four shell companies that did not pay any tax on profits between 2020 and 2022. That in turn benefited his investment company which made large donations to Reform.
Between March 2020 and May 2022, Tisun Investments Ltd then transferred £1,113,000 to Reform UK, the newspaper reported.
Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates told the Times: “The non-payment of tax leaves him and his network of firms vulnerable to investigation by HMRC, which could demand tax owed plus interest and potentially penalties.”
The Mirror reports that Farage was asked whether he would carry out a probe into Tice’s tax affairs, but instead refused to answer the question and suggested his deputy was being scapegoated.
Farage said: “So I remember this all happening ten years ago. Ten years ago, Richard Tice came out publicly as a Brexiteer and guess what happened? What always happens? An immediate investigation into him by the by HMRC, as happens to all of us that dare to take on the system, big investigation media around it.
“At the end of it it was discovered he’d overpaid tax and HMRC actually gave him a rebate. And here we are, 10 years on, we’re going through the same process.
“I would just say a couple of things very clearly now. One, I’m not surprised because this is somebody in business, you know, who’s had a lot of different companies under his operation.”
Farage went on to echo Tice’s line that if it was found he had underpaid, he would pay the correct amount.
What Farage failed to given an answer to during his reply was questions about the current allegations and why corporation tax was allegedly underpaid.
Labour chair Anna Turley said Mr Farage had to explain why he still had confidence in Tice.
She accused Farage of deflecting, and said: “This is a serious scandal and Reform’s leadership are in complete denial.
“This isn’t going away. Richard Tice has demanded that others resign over smaller tax errors and now he believes the rules don’t apply to him.”
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