Richard Tice says he and Ben Habib “happened to disagree” on one matter after months of tensions following his ousting as Reform UK deputy leader.
The former Brexit Party MEP, who was not present at the party’s annual conference in Birmingham over the weekend, has not hidden his frustration at the populist party’s inner workings.
He was removed as deputy leader in July in a major reshuffle which saw Zia Yusuf become the party chairman.
Reform MP and ex-leader Richard Tice sought to play down the show of tension.
Richard Tice spoke on Ben Habib tensions
GB NEWS
“The joy of a democracy is, you can have different views on something”, he said.
“The constitution was agreed almost unanimously by thousands of delegates yesterday, some delegates might say they prefer this wording, or this type of structure, that’s fine.
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Richard Tice was quizzed by Ben Leo on GB News
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“But it was approved in the constitution. Life would be boring if we were all the same. Ben is very committed and enthusiastic, we just happened to disagree on one view.
“When conference delegates come up to me and say, ‘can you please confirm that this constitution can’t mean we won’t be hijacked by bad elements’, which can happen in growing political parties, that shows democratising is the way forward.”
GB News’s Ben Leo pressed Richard Tice on the matter, saying Nigel Farage has suggested Habib is not even a member of the party and there appears to be more of a fallout rather than just a solitary matter.
Tice said: “We can have different views on how we do different things. We have 80,000 members, I don’t have the list in front of me, who knows.
Ben HabibGB NEWS“We had a hugely successful conference. On Friday we had 2,700 members join on one day. There’s incredible enthusiasm. We’re going up in the polls.”
The constitution, which was signed off by Farage at the Reform conference, was branded “really poor” by Habib in a scathing verdict.
He told GB News: “It’s badly drafted, incomplete, and ill-thought-through. It’s really not good at any level.”
Habib was stood down as deputy leader shortly after failing to become an MP for the insurgent party.
He finished third in the Wellingborough constituency with 9,456 votes, trailing Labour and the Tories.
The vote share did reflect growing support for Farage & Co in the Northamptonshire constituency, with Habib finishing third with just 3,919 votes in the February by-election.