Richard Tice has been told to apologise to firefighters after urging Britons to “enjoy” the hot weather while crews battle wildfires across the country.
The Reform UK deputy leader made the comments during a press conference on Monday as he argued Britain should focus on adapting to climate change rather than trying to stop it through net zero policies.
Asked whether he accepted climate change was real, Tice said it was but questioned whether Britain’s net zero programme could prevent temperatures rising.
He then turned to what he saw as some of the positives of warmer weather.
“When it’s a bit warm, let’s enjoy it,” Tice said.
He added that if the changing climate meant English wine and sparkling wine became better, that was “fantastic”, joking that Britain could take on the French.
Labour chair Bridget Phillipson has now accused him of making light of conditions that have left firefighters tackling some of the worst wildfires Britain has seen this summer.
She said Tice owed them an apology.
‘He should apologise to them’
Phillipson said firefighters had been putting themselves at risk protecting homes and communities while extreme heat and dry ground helped fires spread.
“I think he owes an apology to the firefighters who were battling in extreme conditions, putting themselves and their lives at risk in order to protect people’s homes,” she told The Guardian.
She said jokes about sparkling wine were inappropriate while crews were dealing with the damage caused by the fires.
Tice has not publicly apologised.
Reform did not respond to The Guardian’s request for comment on Phillipson’s remarks.
The row follows a summer in which huge areas of England have been hit by drought and fire crews have faced unusually difficult conditions.
Earlier this month the Fire Brigades Union called the situation an “unprecedented summer of dangerous and volatile wildfires” and warned that crews needed more funding and specialist equipment.
In one New Forest fire alone, more than 120 firefighters were involved in bringing the blaze under control.
Homes have also been damaged or destroyed elsewhere in the country, with evacuations ordered in some areas.
What Richard Tice actually said
There is more to Tice’s argument than the “enjoy it” line that has circulated widely online.
He accepts that the climate is changing.
What he rejects is the idea that Britain’s current net zero policies are an effective answer.
“Of course climate change is real,” he told reporters.
Tice then asked what evidence there was that net zero would stop it and argued that climate change had always occurred.
His preference, he said, would be to spend more money adapting Britain to hotter and drier conditions.
Tice cited water shortages as one example and has advocated desalination plants as a possible way of increasing supply.
He also compared the current summer with the famously hot summer of 1976.
Where scientists would strongly disagree with him is the suggestion that reducing greenhouse gas emissions cannot affect the future climate.
Human-produced greenhouse gases are driving the current rise in global temperatures. Reaching net zero does not mean temperatures immediately fall back to previous levels, but cutting emissions is necessary to stop additional warming.
Tice’s argument is that Britain acting alone cannot materially alter a global problem and that the economic cost of existing net zero policies is too high.
That position has become central to Reform’s pitch to voters.
Reform wants net zero scrapped
Reform has promised to scrap Britain’s legally binding target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
The party argues the policy drives up energy bills, damages industry and imposes costs on households without making enough difference to global temperatures.
Tice has repeatedly described net zero as economically harmful.
There is political ground to fight over here. The cost of the transition, who pays for it and how quickly Britain should move away from fossil fuels are all legitimate questions.
The problem for Tice is that his attempt to make that argument landed in the middle of an exceptionally difficult summer.
Temperatures have repeatedly climbed above 35C, while drought conditions have affected large parts of England and Wales.
Research cited during the current heatwave estimated 2,877 heat-related deaths during the May and June heatwaves, although estimates of heat deaths can vary depending on methodology.
More than 1,000 wildfires have also been recorded during the prolonged period of dry weather.
Against that backdrop, “let’s enjoy it” was always likely to attract attention.
Labour spots an opening
Labour has wasted little time using the comments against Reform.
The party has already produced a social media video placing footage of Tice’s remarks alongside images of homes damaged by the Stourbridge wildfire.
Phillipson’s demand for an apology takes the attack a step further by focusing on firefighters rather than the wider argument about net zero.
It is politically useful territory for Labour.
Instead of trying to persuade voters about carbon budgets or emissions targets, the party can ask whether a senior politician should be joking about better English wine while firefighters are dealing with burning homes.
Reform will argue that this misrepresents Tice’s wider point.
He wasn’t celebrating wildfires. He was arguing that climate policy has become too pessimistic and that Britain should adapt to changes that cannot now be completely avoided.
But politicians rarely get to choose which sentence from a press conference follows them around.
For Tice, it is increasingly looking like this will be the one:
“When it’s a bit warm, let’s enjoy it.”
Burnham facing climate questions of his own
Labour is not entirely comfortable on this issue either.
Andy Burnham has faced criticism from environmental groups for saying relatively little about the climate crisis during the recent extreme weather.
The Prime Minister chaired a Cobra meeting last week to discuss drought and wildfire risks but initially concentrated much of his public intervention on disposable barbecues.
During a later visit to Stourbridge, Burnham acknowledged the changing climate and called for more clean energy.
His government is also preparing to decide whether two large new oil and gas developments in the North Sea should be approved.
That decision could prove considerably more important to Britain’s climate policy than Richard Tice’s comments at a press conference.
For now, however, it is Tice who is under pressure.
Phillipson wants an apology.
And after a summer in which firefighters have repeatedly been sent into dangerous conditions, Labour clearly thinks plenty of voters will agree with her.
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