{"id":741005,"date":"2026-08-17T17:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T17:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/741005\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T17:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T17:14:12","slug":"reforms-tice-says-people-should-stop-fighting-climate-crisis-and-enjoy-heat-reform-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/741005\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform\u2019s Tice says people should stop fighting climate crisis and \u2018enjoy\u2019 heat | Reform UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reform\u2019s deputy leader has dismissed efforts to tackle climate breakdown as futile, as he urged British people to \u201cenjoy\u201d the warmth of the recent heatwaves.<\/p>\n

Richard Tice told a press conference on Monday he believed it was \u201carrogant\u201d to try to stop the climate emergency and added that politicians should focus instead on adaptation efforts, while encouraging people to focus on upsides such as better English wine.<\/p>\n

Tice was speaking after a record-breaking summer during which temperatures have risen above 35C several times, causing thousands of deaths, millions of hospital visits and costing the UK an estimated \u00a34bn in economic output.<\/p>\n

The climate breakdown has been linked to the increasing frequency of wildfires<\/a>, which are burning larger areas across many parts of the world. The so-called firewave<\/a> the UK witnessed weeks ago was the most widespread the country has seen, with the combination of wet winters and prolonged heatwaves exacerbating the risk.<\/p>\n

The National Farmers\u2019 Union has said<\/a> farmers are facing \u201cone of the worst ever\u201d harvests, while firefighters have battled wildfires in Derbyshire, the Midlands, Wales and Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

Asked for his response to the extreme heat events, Tice told a press conference: \u201cOf course, the climate changes, but where is the evidence that net zero is going to stop it? Where is the evidence? There is no evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change has always happened. It always will. Maybe the smarter thing to do is to adapt to it than think arrogantly that you can stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comparing this summer\u2019s heat with that of 1976, which went on for longer but was less intense<\/a>, Tice added: \u201cThat was 50 years ago \u2026 I think when it\u2019s a bit warm, let\u2019s enjoy it. And if it means that English wine and sparkling wine gets better and better, fantastic. That means we can take on the French \u2013 fantastic. Let\u2019s celebrate some of these things rather than just be sort of doom and gloom about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reform has long campaigned to scrap the government\u2019s commitment to reaching net zero by 2050 and has promised to end green subsidies if elected.<\/p>\n

The party has taken<\/a> tens of millions of pounds in donations from people with connections to the fossil fuel industry since it was set up in 2019, most notably from the billionaire Christopher Harborne, who owns a jet fuel brokerage and whose \u00a35m gift<\/a> to Nigel Farage is now at the centre of a parliamentary inquiry.<\/p>\n

While Farage has questioned the role that human activity has played in changing the climate, his deputy leader has been more outspoken in denying that the planet is experiencing a climate crisis at all.<\/p>\n

He posted in 2024<\/a>: \u201cWe are not in climate emergency; nor is there a climate crisis. But yes, climate change is real because it has happened for millions of years past & will do in future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tice has long supported backing climate mitigation efforts rather than measures to tackle the climate crisis. On Monday he called on the government to invest in desalination plants, which he said worked well in the Middle East, where he spends much of his time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhere\u2019s been the discussion about desalination plants that are used in other parts of the world very, very successfully?\u201d he said. \u201cYeah, there\u2019s not much water on land in the Middle East. They use desalination plants. We\u2019re surrounded by water. It is too difficult to build a reservoir \u2013 let\u2019s look at desalination plants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Climate experts and campaigners criticised Tice\u2019s comments on Monday. Alasdair Johnstone, the head of parliamentary engagement at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: \u201cFar from being an enjoyable experience, for many this summer will have brought hardship, with 2,877 deaths during the May and June heatwaves, over 1,100 of which are directly attributable to the extra heat added by climate change. Firefighters have been called to over 1,000 wildfires, which have devastated the landscape, displaced people, and destroyed homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way these climate change impacts can be prevented from becoming more common and severe is to tackle the cause, which means reaching net zero emissions by 2050.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amy Cameron, a programme director for Greenpeace UK, said: \u201cTice\u2019s words show that a party bankrolled by fossil fuel interests will keep denying the climate crisis for its funders\u2019 benefit even when its impacts are undeniable. Reform should try telling nurses fainting on shifts, farmers losing their crops and people running from burning homes to enjoy the hot weather and see what reaction they\u2019ll get.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Reform press conference also heard Robert Jenrick say long-term benefits claimants would be made to clean up highs street<\/a> and do charity work or face having their benefits taken away.<\/p>\n

He said that as part of the party\u2019s \u201cwelfare to work\u201d policy, long-term claimants who were fit to work would be forced to do 20 hours of community work a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reform\u2019s deputy leader has dismissed efforts to tackle climate breakdown as futile, as he urged British people to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-741005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}