Reform deputy leader Richard Tice claimed that his party was not allowed to lay a poppy wreath at the Cenotaph as part of a “shameful stitch-up” on Sunday – but that’s actually not the case.
On Remembrance Sunday, former prime ministers, the current PM Keir Starmer and political leaders all followed annual tradition and laid a wreath at the London memorial site in honour of all those who have fallen and suffered in conflict.
However, neither Reform leader Nigel Farage nor Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer joined them.
Instead they both watched a balcony at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office above.
So Farage’s deputy, fellow MP Tice, wrote on X: “Why were Reform not allowed to lay a wreath? We got more votes than Lib Dems, SNP and DUP combined. Yet they all laid wreaths…Shameful stitch up.”
However, a decades-old protocol states each party must have at least six MPs to be able to take part in that element of the Remembrance ceremony, regardless of how many votes each party amassed overall at the last election.
Reform currently has five MPs, while the Greens have four.
Meanwhile, Labour have 402 MPs, the Conservatives have 121, the Lib Dems have 72, SNP have nine and Sinn Fein have seven.
The leaders of the largest party from each devolved nations are permitted to lay a wreath, too, which is why the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Gavin Robinson was permitted to join in despite having just five MPs.
An addendum to a 1984 protocol states “the party with the most sitting MPs from each of the devolved nations should be given the opportunity to lay a wreath”, even if they have fewer than six seats.
Meanwhile, Plaid Cymru and the SNP have agreed since 2001 to have a joint wreath and to take turns putting it on the cenotaph every other year.
Farage told GB News that his party would have enough MPs after the next election, and claimed: “I personally am not complaining, but other people are.”
The MP for Clacton also posted a video of himself honouring Armistice Day on Monday, 11 November, by laying a poppy wreath at a memorial in his constituency.