Richard Tice
Richard James Sunley Tice (born 13 September 1964) is a multi-millionaire British businessman and right-wing politician who has been leader of Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party) since 6 March 2021. Tice was CEO of the real estate group CLS Holdings from 2010 to 2014, after which he became CEO of the property asset management group Quidnet Capital LLP. He was a founder and co-chairman of the pro-Brexit campaign groups Leave.EU and Leave Means Leave. Tice helped found the Brexit Party, later rebranded as Reform UK, and was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East of England constituency at the 2019 European Parliament election. He held this role until the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU in January 2020. However, he continued to serve as chairman of the party under Nigel Farage and took office as leader in March 2021. Early life Richard Tice was born on 13 September 1964 in Farnham in Surrey, the third child of James S. Tice and the horse trainer and philanthropist Joan Mary Tice, who died on 26 April 2019. He is a maternal grandson of the property developer Bernard Sunley. Tice was educated at the private Uppingham School. He subsequently received a bachelor's degree in construction economics and quantity surveying from the University of Salford. Property career After graduation in 1987, Tice's first job was at the housing developer London and Metropolitan. This included time at its Paris office where he learnt French. He then started working for the housebuilding and commercial property company founded by his grandfather called The Sunley Group in 1991. Tice was its joint chief executive officer (CEO) for 14 years before leaving the company in 2006. Tice then ran his own debt advisory consultancy before joining the property investment group CLS Holdings in 2010. He led major planning property applications in Vauxhall, London. He was its CEO until 2014. He left the company to become the CEO of the property investment firm, Quidnet Capital Partners LLP, having been removed from CLS' board as a result of a potential conflict of interest. Political career Conservative Party Before joining the Brexit Party, Tice was a long-term donor and member of the Conservative Party for most of his adult life. Tice wrote a 2008 report for the think tank Reform called "Academies: A model education?". In 2017, he co-wrote a pamphlet for the think tank UK 2020, "Timebomb: how the university cartel is failing Britain's students", which included recommendations on how to expand two-year degrees. He produced a follow-up report on student finances called "Defusing the debt timebomb" which he sent to the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond. In a May 2018 article on the Conservative Home website, Tice argued for the importance of expanding the availability of homes for people on lower incomes and how this could be achieved more effectively. He felt that crime could also be reduced if housing was better managed. Euroscepticism Tice is a Eurosceptic. He was a director