Reform UK leader Richard Tice launched his campaign for the Boston and Skegness seat at the Vine Hotel in Skegness. Lincolnshire World asked him why residents should vote for him.
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00:00 This great nation of ours, we've got to make it great again.
00:03 And I believe we can.
00:05 And that's what I want to do.
00:06 If I get elected here in Boston and Skegness with everybody's help, then we're going to
00:10 make a huge, huge influence.
00:12 We're going to shape an influence and we are here for the long term.
00:17 So let's make everybody great again.
00:19 Everyone with us?
00:20 Yeah!
00:21 I love campaigning and very excited to be standing here in Boston and Skegness at a
00:28 significant Brexit seat.
00:31 And like so many constituencies, like the whole country let down after 14 years of Conservative
00:38 rule.
00:39 And it's just such a great constituency, like the country, such a great country.
00:45 But we're being so badly managed, so badly led and we can do much better.
00:49 And I just feel that I can do a much better job as MP than Mr. Warner.
00:56 Now in a week when Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland announced on a radio show he was
01:03 actually standing for Mayor of Skegness, could local people be looking at the next Prime
01:11 Minister of the UK?
01:14 Let's wait and see.
01:15 The most important thing, first of all, is to get elected here in Boston and Skegness.
01:20 That's what I'm totally focused on.
01:22 And I think it's really, it would be fantastic for this great constituency to have a proper
01:27 national voice in Westminster, really standing up for the constituents.
01:32 And I'm afraid from everything I'm hearing, that's just not been the case with Mr.
01:36 Warman, who's just voted with the lobby, hasn't looked after the whole concept of Brexit.
01:42 And he's voted for raising taxes, he's voted for ever more bigger states and yet public
01:47 services have got worse.
01:48 He's voted for mass immigration and it's not actually what people want here in Boston
01:54 and Skegness.
01:55 People want smart immigration, freezing immigration so that you have welcome, essential skills,
02:02 high qualifications in healthcare.
02:03 But actually what we've got to do is we've got to have a fair system.
02:09 Because otherwise mass immigration that we've had, and we've had announcements this week,
02:13 a city much bigger than Manchester arrived in 2023 and that's pretty similar to 2022.
02:21 It's almost 700,000 people net, 1.2 million people on a gross basis.
02:28 That's putting huge pressure on housing rents that have gone up 20% plus in the last two
02:33 years, huge pressure on ambulance delays, A&E waiting times, hospital waiting lists.
02:40 And it's just not fair, particularly for young people, but for everybody.
02:43 It's just a question of fairness.
02:45 And the British people, we're a very fair people.
02:48 And also mass immigration depresses wages, undercuts wages, and again, that's just unfair
02:54 on British people, in particular young folk.
02:59 So is the immigration situation in the UK the reason that you're standing for Skegness
03:05 and Boston because both of those towns have had their challenges?
03:13 Immigration is both legal and illegal.
03:17 With the boats coming across, it has been a huge challenge.
03:20 I know here in Boston at Skegness, and it's just unfair.
03:25 And it's the residents who pay for it.
03:27 And there are real concerns about safety.
03:30 It's unfair where our taxes are going.
03:33 And the impact it has on tourism.
03:36 Also it destroys jobs when these hotels are taken over.
03:39 And I've seen it here, I've seen it in many other towns.
03:44 And I'm afraid it leads to an increase in crime as well.
03:47 And yet there's a sort of silence from the police and from the MPs and the mainstream
03:53 media.
03:54 They're embarrassed to talk about it.
03:55 Well, I'm not.
03:56 I'm just telling it as it is, because the great British people, the residents of this
04:00 constituency of Boston and Skegness know what's going on.
04:04 And I believe, best represented by an MP that's going to call it out.
04:08 And that's why it's right to have a national voice for Boston and Skegness in Westminster.
04:15 Residents who came here today for the launch, they did express concerns about what you've
04:22 just spoken about, but also about the infrastructure in Lincolnshire.
04:26 I don't know which way you came in, but it's not brilliant.
04:35 And then the potholes.
04:36 Would you be looking at doing something about it?
04:39 Absolutely.
04:40 The thing is, what I pledge, if I'm elected as MP, I pledge that no one will work harder
04:44 than me to make sure that Boston and Skegness gets a much fairer crack at the whip.
04:50 Both with local infrastructure money in Lincolnshire, but actually also making sure we get a much
04:56 better crack at the whip.
04:57 A regional and national allocation.
04:58 And that it's spent, and it's spent well and rapidly.
05:01 There's no point getting this money allocated, but then it being held up in the bureaucracy
05:06 and the system.
05:07 Got to get stuff done.
05:08 My background is in real estate and infrastructure.
05:10 I know how to push things on.
05:11 I know how to challenge people, kick some backsides bluntly when they need kicking.
05:16 And I just think I'll be much, much more effective than Mr. Warman at this.
05:21 And it's what I do, it's who I am.
05:23 And that's why Reform UK has grown so much from nowhere to polling so well in the mid-teens.
05:28 It's why the Tories are terrified of us, as we're going up in the polls, they're going
05:31 down in the polls.
05:32 We know how to get stuff done.
05:33 We've got a successful track record.
05:35 Our policies across the board are common sense.
05:39 Whether it's on making work pay, lifting income tax starting point to £20,000.
05:43 Whether it's on how you get to zero waiting lists.
05:47 Waiting lists are a crisis everywhere.
05:50 And then also with immigration.
05:53 Smart immigration, that's a sensible thing.
05:55 Mass immigration, no one voted for it.
05:57 It depresses wages.
05:58 It reduces the quality of life, the quality of living and life.
06:03 It's just patently unfair.
06:05 Now the coast especially has been seeing some of the benefits starting to evolve from town
06:14 deal money and long-term deal money, that's the recent one.
06:19 Should you still be honouring those projects?
06:22 Yeah, but it's got to be done faster.
06:24 And we've got to keep the money coming through and spend it, make sure that it's being spent
06:28 really well and make sure that money's not being wasted, residents not being ripped off,
06:33 the council's not being ripped off by consultants and contractors putting in over-inflated prices.
06:40 I know about all of this stuff.
06:41 I will make sure that the constituents are getting fair, decent value for money.
06:47 If you can make the money go further, guess what?