Richard Tice accuses Met Police of engaging in ‘politically motivated smear campaign’ against Reform over party finances investigation

Richard Tice has questioned whether the Met Police is engaged in a “politically motivated smear campaign” against Reform over an investigation into donations his party received.

The Reform deputy leader also called the BBC’s reporting of the facts around the police investigation into his party’s finances “a hit job”. 

On Saturday, the BBC reported that police are investigating payments made to Reform via a company Tice owns, called Britain Means Business.

Britain Means Business gave Reform two donations of £250,000 in the run up to the 2024 general election.

Tice said that his company received a £1 million donation from Fiona Cottrell, the mother of George Cottrell. He later transferred £500,000 of that sum to Reform. 

However,  the National Crime Agency had stated that it was “unable to trace the source of the money”. 

Tice said he wasn’t aware that his company was being investigated by the police.

He said: “This is the first I have heard of it – if true, why are the Met Police briefing the BBC before contacting interested parties?”.

The Reform politician even questioned: “Is the Met leadership now engaged in the widespread politically motivated smear campaign against Reform and its leaders?”. 

In another post on X, Tice claimed that the BBC and the Metropolitan Police had “acted in clear breach of legal obligations contrary to well-established case law, in the BBC’s reporting about me over the weekend”.

Tice said he has written to the commissioner of the Met Police and BBC’s director general “setting out these serious breaches”. He said he had also instructed his lawyers, and said any media organisation considering repeating the allegations “should exercise the utmost caution”.

Tice previously accused The Sunday Times of engaging in “a smear” by doing in-depth reporting on Reform’s finances.

For example, the Sunday Times revealed that Nigel Farage received financial support from convicted fraudster George Cottrell in the year before the 2024 general election, which he did not declare.

One social media user commented: “Richard Tice and Reform UK spent weeks hounding Angela Rayner and demanding answers, but now that questions are being asked about Reform’s own funding, suddenly it’s lawyers, warnings and “the utmost caution”.

“So much for the great champions of free speech and accountability. It seems scrutiny is only welcome when it is aimed at someone else.

“This is starting to look less like transparency and more like a very Trumpian attempt to intimidate people into shutting up.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward