Tice steps up for Farage over past racism claims – and gets nothing in return | John Crace

What a shame, poor Dicky. Don’t trust Nigel. Because there is no salvation in it.

It’s not easy being Richard Tice. A man who has spent much of his recent life in the shadow of Nigel Farage. He was pushed around. It’s made to make you feel worthless. He is losing his self-respect day by day.

Before the last election campaign began, Dicky was the leader of the Reformation. A party that went nowhere under his charismaless control. Dicky would talk and no one would listen. Then Nige decided to rise from the dead. To push Dicky aside. No consultation. No apology. Dicky was told to consider himself lucky to be demoted to the almost meaningless title of deputy leader.

Dicky did all this properly. She sucked him. Because that was always the nature of their relationship. First Nigel, Dicky is nowhere. Sometimes it’s almost painful to watch them together. The desperation in Tice’s eyes. His gratitude when Farage stopped ignoring him and instead condescended to belittle him.

Dicky learned to feed on scraps. You can see the desire to ride the Nige wave. To collect the crumbs that come your way. He aspires to be Farage’s candidate for shadow chancellor. She dreams of living next to him in Downing Street. But Nigel can’t even give him that. I can’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that he was included in their plans.

Nige has been playing Dicky against fellow Reform wannabe Zia Yusuf for months. It is left to everyone to guess who is most in favor. A fight to the death. It would be right if Farage decided to disappoint them both by giving the job to the latest to escape, the half-witted Jonathan Gullis, the former Tory derelict. He leaves Tice sobbing softly to sleep during his regular trips to Dubai to see his girlfriend. In times like these, sharia law can be a great comfort.

But the worse Nige treats Dicky, the more needy Dicky becomes. And on Thursday’s Today show, we hit a new low. The point where he can say anything – ANYTHING – to defend his leader. All the while he knew that if the roles were reversed, Farage would not hesitate to let him go at once. It’s safe to say that’s 10 minutes of life that Tice can’t spare for the showreel.

The interview started good-naturedly enough, with Emma Barnett quizzing her on Reform’s reaction to the government’s decision to cancel four mayoral elections by 2028. Dicky was unimpressed. And fair enough. Labour’s claim that this wasn’t technically an annulment because it was the inaugural election always seemed like a semantic twist. Taking another year or two to agree on the financial package and the necessary legal instruments was akin to cruise control management.

This was all a conspiracy to stop the Reformation. Rejection of democracy. This sounded very much like a conspiracy theory, given that all other local elections in 2026 are proceeding as planned. Mistaking incompetence for something intentional. “The only ones who cancel elections are dictatorships,” Tice said.

Barnett’s ears perked up at the word dictator. It’s funny he mentions that. But he said Farage had no relationship with Hitler. In a way. When 20 or more students at the school hadn’t heard him make jokes about gas chambers? Was it just a joke that Hitler was right and detained black students?

“This is all complete made-up nonsense,” Tice said. Everyone was lying through their teeth to discredit Farage. Nige was a very wronged Messiah. He would never say such a thing. Even though he had previously admitted, he may have actually unintentionally said things that could have been offensive. But they all fell into a separate category of non-racist racism. AKA the best joke. He was never intentionally racist. This opened the doors to a whole new world of unintentional racism.

Emma couldn’t believe her ears. Dicky had never been to Dulwich College with Nigel. She never met Nigel until much later in her life. And yet, somehow, he knew for certain that Farage had never made any anti-Semitic statements, and that all 20 or so of his former fellow students had not only made a mistake, but had deliberately set out to lie to harm Reformation.

“Let me be clear. Are you saying they are lying?” Barnett asked. It’s always best to double check these. As long as there are no mistakes.

“Yes,” said Dicky. “This is made-up chatter.”

There we were. Dicky comes out on top. Beyond the call of duty. He is ready to sacrifice his life for a friend. Some might call him crazy. Calling people you don’t know a liar on such a matter may attract the attention of libel lawyers. Tice’s small fortune may be about to get a little smaller.

It was an act of friendship that was not reciprocated by Farage later in the day. The main reason for this is that Nige does not see Tice as a friend. A more useful idiot. Disposable. At a hastily called press conference to further claims that the canceled election was a conspiracy against Reformation, Nige was asked whether Dicky was right to call Dulwich’s accusers liars. Something he flatly refuses to do. There’s no point in dragging him to libel court either. Dicky was alone.

Instead Farage launched into a lengthy tirade against the BBC. Emma Barnett was a disgrace. Vile. The BBC itself was guilty of double standards. Check out some of his shows in the 1970s. Black and White Minstrel Show. Not Half Hot, Mom. Death Till We Part. He struggled with racism. So why wasn’t the Beeb apologizing for its own output?

It seemed as if Farage believed two wrongs made a right. He almost admitted that he was wrong too. If the BBC could broadcast all this as light entertainment, then it was perfectly fine to make a few Hitler jokes to the Jewish people. He ended his rant by revealing a letter he claimed to have received from another former student. “Nigel was a very funny guy. He never said anything bad to anyone. We all love Nigel.”

Questions briefly turned to the departure of the Conservative Party. Was there anyone whom the Reformation would not take? “Absolutely,” said Nigel. We will only take people we care about. How does this explain Jonathan Gullis? He was never of any use to anyone. We finished the conversation with a journalist asking if Nige planned to sue Barnett. Nige was evasive. These things can be expensive. Still, it had been a good day for the lawyers.