What to do if you’re a Reform-loving journalist, have a fawning profile of its deputy leader ready to roll but find the party suddenly tearing itself apart in the most public of fashions? Not a problem if you’re the Daily Express’ Adam Toms – simply ignore it!
On Saturday the Express ran a lengthy “exclusive” chat with Richard Tice over two pages (online it appeared under the hard-hitting headline ‘Inside the little UK seaside town where locals seem to be loving having a Reform MP’) which couldn’t have been more sycophantic had it been crafted by the party’s own press office.
“Walking tall and clad in a navy suit and pink tie, the privately educated Surrey-born high-flyer cuts a charismatic, striking figure and seems to connect with the residents of one of the most deprived towns in the UK,” reported Toms breathlessly. He didn’t query Tice’s dubious claim that 40% of his constituents “barely speak a word of English” or, on his decision to divide his time between Boston and Dubai, how “my constituents back me up on this hugely”.
Over the space of a couple of thousand words, however, and despite the fact Reform’s implosion had taken place the previous day, at no point did Toms find space to mention that Tice’s fellow Reform MPs are now at war with each other with the very real prospect of the rozzers getting involved. Nothing to see here!
