Richard Tice says 'tactical voting' by Reform voters handed Andy Burnham victory in Makerfield

Reform UK's Richard Tice has argued that Andy Burnham's victory in the Makerfield by-election was due to "tactical voting" by his party's supporters.

Speaking to GB News, Reform UK's deputy leader declared that they were "always the underdogs" in the challenge against the ex-Greater Manchester Mayor.

Asked by host Ellie Costello "what went wrong" for Reform in the election, Mr Tice assured that voters chose to help "remove the most unpopular Prime Minister in living memory at a general election".

He told GB News: "It's the seat that's been held by Labour as a safe Labour seat for the last hundred years, so congratulations to Mr Burnham for holding such a Labour seat.

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"And of course, we'd have loved to have won it, but we were always the underdogs. Mr Burnham is a well-known figure in the North West and let's just remember, the slogan was 'vote Reform to get Starmer out', and here the slogan was 'Vote Burnham to guarantee to get Starmer out'."

He added: "We had a number of Reform voters specifically, tactically on this occasion who voted Burnham to guarantee to remove the most unpopular Prime Minister in living memory at a general election."

Mr Tice made clear that Reform will be "ready" and will "win" the next general election, should one be called.

He said: "It may well be if Mr Burnham goes on to be the next Labour leader, a general election might come sooner rather than later.

"We look forward to that, we'll be ready and we'll win it, because we're leading in all of the national polls, so lots of work in progress."

Echoing the remarks of pollster Luke Tryl, host Alex Armstrong told Mr Tice that he believes Reform has a "hard path to power" following the Makerfield result.

The Reform deputy leader responded: "He's completely misinterpreted what has happened. There was tactical voting by very large numbers of people from the left and the right to vote Burnham to get Starmer out. That, I think has been achieved.

"And I'll just remind people, in all of Burnham's literature and posters, the word Labour never appeared. Why? Because the Labour brand is toxic.

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"And across the North East and the North and the Midlands in the local elections on May 7th just gone, it was Reform that stormed the way, and that's what we continue to do in all of the polls."

Highlighting the 3,111 votes for Restore Britain and 997 votes for the Tories, Alex questioned Mr Tice on what his message would be to right-wing voters who appear to be splitting.

He made clear: "Unite behind Reform. Its only Reform that now has the confidence of the British people, and you can see it from the polls, to do the right thing, to use our own energy treasure from the North Sea oil and gas to bring the bills down to cut wasteful spending.

"To cut the benefits bill, to stop the boats, to have net zero immigration, that's the only net zero we do want, by the way. And people trust us, and people are sick and tired of the two main parties who've made people poorer."

Questioned on whether Reform's candidate Robert Kenyon was the "right choice" for the election, Mr Tice told GB News that he did "brilliantly" to come second place to Andy Burnham.

He said: "Of course, you can always look back, you reflect – the bottom line is that Mr Burnham, he was the beneficiary of a major tactical vote, and actually Robert Kenyon did brilliantly.

"He worked incredibly hard, we're very grateful to him, and I trust he'll enjoy a restful weekend. He's increased his vote share from when he stood at the general election, he's apologised for some some poorly judged comments and bad comments when he was a private individual.

"We push on. We're looking forward to the Greater Manchester mayoral election that will take place, we think, at the end of July, and we hope that we can win that."

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