Richard Tice was torn apart by presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer yesterday over over Donald Trump’s approach to the Ukraine war.
The US president announced this week that he will be starting negotiations to end the conflict with Vladimir Putin.
Although the war began three years ago when Russia invaded Ukraine in a land grab, Trump has suggested Kyiv should make concessions to Putin in the name of peace.
The US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has already suggested Russia gets to keep a fifth of Ukraine’s landmass and that Kyiv is prevented from joining Nato.
The Reform UK party is close to the Trump administration and so keenly defended his approach to the Ukraine war.
On Talk TV last night, presenter Hartley-Brewer asked Tice: “Which part of Britain would you give away if we were invaded and you wanted to negotiate peace?”
He began: “None at all –”
The presenter interrupted: “Oh so we wouldn’t give away any of Britain, but it’s OK for us to give away a bit of Ukraine?”
Tice said it was Ukraine who will choose to give it away, to which the presenter replied that Ukraine doesn’t want to give it away.
“Of course it doesn’t! But ultimately, it is Zelenskyy’s decision,” he said. “Ultimately, we’ve got to stop killing people.”
Hartley-Brewer replied: “If we were invaded, and our close allies in Nato, like the US, supported us for a bit but gave us just enough support so we could actually not lose, but not enough to win.”
Tice said that would leave the invaded country in a better position to negotiate a solution, but the presenter pointed out that the US was now essentially letting the invaders take territory.
The MP then tried to compare it to settling the Troubles in Northern Ireland, but Hartley-Brewer cut in: “We didn’t give away territory to an invading force! That’s a ridiculous analogy.”
He maintained it was a valid comparison, but the presenter said: “Sorry, who invaded Northern Ireland?”
Tice said: “Wars stop when people stop killing people.”
Hartley-Brewer said: “No, wars stop when one side is defeated. Sorry, have you heard of the Second World War? Did we negotiate the end of the Second World War?”
Tice replied: “There were lots of other wars where ultimately people negotiate a peace, otherwise you just carry on. How long are we going to carry on?”
The presenter suggested the reason there would be a negotiated settlement is because “it’s not our problem”.
“Except it will be our problem when Vladimir Putin thinks he can take any territory of any country in Europe that he damn well pleases,” she said.
Tice said the negotiation would stop Putin from pushing further forward.
“You clearly don’t understand how President Trump works. He starts out in one position, that doesn’t mean that’s where he settles,” Tice replied.
She said: “You know what you don’t do in a negotiation? You set out a position where you give the other side everything that they want. Literally what they’ve done.”
She added: “I thought Reform cared about national borders and security, just, apparently not all of them.”
He said his party does care, but that the war has to stop, so Hartley-Brewer asked: “How long would you fight for this country?”
“Until I’m dead,” Tice replied, leading the presenter to say: “Well exactly, that’s what the Ukrainian people would ideally do if they were given support.”