Reform MP Richard Tice had millions squirrelled away in a tax haven

When Richard Tice made an impassioned plea in 2022 for Britain to end restrictions on climate-wrecking shale gas, he hit out at ministers raising taxes while they “send money overseas”. But Good Law Project can reveal that Tice had previously sent his own money out of the UK, transferring shares worth millions into an offshore family trust.

Tice owns a commercial property company, Quidnet REIT, which he’s kept since becoming an MP in July. After going through the firm’s accounts with the investigations team at The Mirror, we’ve uncovered links to Tice’s family trust – which was until recently based in Jersey.

Mr Tice transferred a million of his shares in his property firm into the trust while it was based offshore.

According to the tax expert Richard Murphy, “There are only two reasons to use tax havens.” He said, “One is to secure secrecy, but that was obviously not his goal here because his use of Jersey trusts is on public record. The other is to save tax. You would not incur the expense otherwise. That must be his aim in this case.”

Assuming “all the right steps have been followed”, he added, “there is nothing illegal about this”, but “why would anyone who says they believe so strongly in the government of the UK that they want to be an MP go about willingly undermining UK government tax revenues in this way? His public and private positions seem very hard to reconcile.”

This also raises awkward questions for Reform UK. Its so-called “contract” – released as its election manifesto (PDF) when Tice was the party’s chair – promises to “take back control” of “our money” and “stop the offshore taxpayer ripoff” by preventing other property companies from avoiding tax with offshore tax structures.

Commenting on the findings, Tice told the Mirror that the trust had “been relocated to the UK”, and that the implication that revenue may have been lost is “utter nonsense”.  

He added that, “It is standard for international investment and investors to have intermediate companies in such locations to avoid double taxation; I believe like most people in the principle of paying tax once on income or capital earnings, not paying twice for the same earnings. I have always been a UK taxpayer and paid normal UK tax on my worldwide earnings.”

For the Good Law Project executive director Jo Maugham, the calculation is simple.

“If you really love your country you pay your taxes,” Maugham said. “You want young people to be well educated and older people to be cared for. You want a decent police force and your armed forces veterans looked after. You don’t have a family trust in a tax haven.”

We have also found a separate company registered in Jersey linked to Mr Tice. He admitted to The Mirror that Gellymill Ltd – which has previously lent Quidnet REIT £125,000 – is under his ultimate control.