Richard Tice shrugged off the threat of EU steel tariffs by insisting ‘They need us more than we need them’ and it all felt grimly familiar – 17 incredulous reactions

We’d honestly thought that, given the fortunes of The UK since the 2016 Brexit referendum, we’d heard the last of phrases such as ‘we hold all the cards’, ‘take back control’, and ‘they need us more than we need them’.

But no! Dear old Richard Tice, Deputy Leader of Reform UK, is still rolling out the the same hoary old, discredited platitudes even in the face of The EU threatening to impose tariffs on UK produced steel and to remove the rights of UK second-home owners (well, at least according to The Telegraph as regards to that second point, who appear to have been stirring the pot a little, as is their wont).

Here he is chatting with Talk TV presenter and fellow Brexiteer, Mike Graham.

Reform UK’s Richard Tice says the UK should start “withholding payments to the EU” after they threatened to kick out British second home owners.

“They need us more than we need them… it needs a determined, courageous PM and we don’t have that!”@iromg | @TiceRichard pic.twitter.com/CU9LnIhY17

— Talk (@TalkTV) October 8, 2025

Astonishing stuff. People couldn’t quite believe what they were hearing.

1.

Remember when he used the “they need us more than we need them” line before and it was complete and utter bollocks?

— Jim Cognito (@JimCognito2016) October 8, 2025

2.

“They need us more than we need them”. Tice has learned precisely the square root of fuck all.

— Ketamineius Maximus (@rightpairoftits) October 8, 2025

3.

Utter idiot. We learned very quickly when people kept saying “they need us more than we need them”, it was utter BS and nonsense.

It’s the same BS and nonsense now.

— Chris Wray (@TheChrisWray) October 8, 2025

4.

From the clowns that fucked us over with Brexit.

Utter charlatan.

— Zebedy (@zebedy1997) October 8, 2025

5.

“They need us more than we need them”

Pretty sure Brexit proved conclusively that this isn’t the case & that the exact opposite is true.

But his clownish position is exactly the one that UK Brexit negotiators took.

Why Brexit went to shit & we’re all far worse off now.

— Ziggy & Zwela (@Ziggy_Zwela) October 8, 2025

6.

Everyone: surely there is nobody left that is stupid enough to continue to pretend that ‘they need us more than we need them’.

Tice: hold my (particularly thick) beer.

— GrumpyProf (@prof_grumpy) October 8, 2025

7.

You would have thought that even Tice and Farage would have abandoned the mantra “they need us more than we need them” by now, as it was always, and has repeatedly been proved to be, manifestly false.

— Zigurds Kronbergs #IStandWithUkraine (@ZGKronbergs) October 8, 2025

8.

Yep because they need us ( 65m consumers ) more than we need them (500m consumers ) ‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/5RsLF0kdh2

— Mark Morgan (@mcm000min) October 8, 2025