Reform UK's Tice claims rising sea levels can be dealt with by "a bit of steel and cement"

30 November 2024, 07:21

Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice has told LBC that rising sea levels as a result of climate change can be dealt with by a "bit of steel, a bit of cement, and some aggregate".

The Boston and Skegness MP, who is attending his party's first ever Scottish conference in Perth today, claimed Reform was the only party backing Scotland's oil and gas industry, and that net zero targets were "making us all poorer and reducing our quality of life".

"We're the only people with the courage to have a strong conviction about it, to think that we've gone down completely the wrong path," he said. "Of course, we all care about the environment, and we all want cleaner air, but technology is a great thing.

"Look, I'm lucky enough I'm able to afford a Tesla. So, you know, not some Luddite. Of course, climate change is really it always has been, always will be. I just think there is a naive arrogance about people who think that you can stop the power of the sun, you can stop the power of volcanoes, you can't.

"What you've got to do, and it would be much, much cheaper, is adapt to it. Where you've got concerns about sea level defences and sea level rise, guess what? A bit of steel, a bit of cement, some aggregate... and you build some concrete sea level defences. That's how you deal with rising sea levels. It costs you a fraction of the price of the trillions of pounds that's being wasted naively, unilaterally in the United Kingdom."

Mr Tice also accused Labour of "sacrificing" skilled car workers' jobs in Luton on "the altar of net zero".

He added: "The main parties, they're obsessed with it, particularly the Labour Party."

Keir Starmer earlier this month announced fresh climate change targets. The UK will now aim for an 81% cut in its emissions by 2035, updating a 78% pledge by 2035 under the previous Conservative government.

The announcement came as 500 properties in England and Wales were damaged by flooding in the wake of Storm Bert.

However Richard Tice said environmental agencies were to blame for the flooding and an "absolute, woeful, negligent failure to dredge rivers."

"You've got to have the courage to call out this incompetence... If you don't dredge ridges rivers, guess what? You flood sooner. And that's what's happening everywhere. We didn't get this flooding 30 or 40 years ago, it is as simple as that, but no one has the courage, apart from us, to tell it as it is."

According to Welsh records, the worst floods experienced in the country in recent times were in 1987.

Pressed on the fact that new flood defences had been put in place in parts of Wales, he added: "Clearly they haven't put the defences in the right place. I don't know the specifics in Wales, but I'm prepared to bet that it will, be because of human failure, as opposed to natural climate change."

Responding to his comments, Scottish Greens co-leader and spokesperson for Net Zero Patrick Harvie MSP said:  “Scotland’s Net Zero ambitions are based on solid research from our many globally respected climate experts. They are the people who should be listened to on this issue; Mr Tice has no serious contribution to make.

“Climate scientists here in Scotland and around the world are devoting their lives to responding to the climate emergency. Paying any attention to ignorant voices on the far right will only increase the risks we all face.”

Richard Tice also believes Reform could be "kingmakers" after the next Scottish Parliament election in 2026, as the party is performing "better than expected" in recent council by-elections, and also saw its vote share rise in Scotland at the General Election.

Speaking with LBC ahead of the conference, he also revealed that party leader Nigel Farage would not be attending. Mr Farage also did not campaign in Scotland during the General Election.

"Look Nigel loves Scotland, but the truth is he'd love to come and he will early in the New year to a different event which will be announced in due course. We're not just a one man show," he said.

"At the end of the day one person can't be everywhere all the time, we're growing a national party, growing rapidly, we're spreading the load."

He added: "We've got about 300 people attending, weather permitting and it's essentially our first real party conference. We're delighted with progress. Both the votes we secured, I think, to the surprise of many, most commentators in Scotland, how many votes we got in the general election, and you've seen the polls since then, give or take, we've probably doubled 13, 14 per cent and heading north.

"So we'll be celebrating that momentum, urging people to go out, keep banging the drum, and obviously we're big fans of proportional representation. We like the Holyrood system of in a sense of electoral representation. And it's becoming increasingly clear, even by significant figures in other political parties, that we're going to have a major role in Holyrood in 2026 in fact, turns out we could, even if we keep this momentum going, we could be the third largest party and play the role of kingmaker."

Asked if there would be any Scotland specific policies developed, he said: "We're a Unionist Party. We're very much focusing on what we think is right for the whole of the United Kingdom. And we think that this Labour Party, in every sense, is taking the country in completely the wrong direction. And what's right for Scotland is right for everywhere.

"We've got to get the economy growing again. It's flat lining, and bluntly, that means cutting out the vast amounts of wasteful, often fraudulent, corrupt government, public sector spending, whether it's in England, Scotland or Wales, it's legendary. We've got to cut daft regulation, and we've got to cut unnecessary taxes and trust the people.

"That's how you create growth. That's how America is going to create growth. And our key economic policy, which has the most direct relevance in Scotland because of the oil and gas industry, is we've got to scrap net zero. It's absolute lunacy. It's the greatest acts, act of financial self harm, and people in Scotland are pooerr because of it, and that's why we're going up in the polls. And we're very clear on that."