Reform UK accuses National Crime Agency of leaking Richard Tice records

Richard Tice has asked the head of the National Crime Agency to investigate whether the agency leaked his private financial records to the media, turning a tax dispute into a test of how sensitive law-enforcement intelligence is handled. Reform UK says the disclosures were unlawful and politically motivated.

Tice, the party’s deputy leader, said he only learned that payments to his company had been flagged to the NCA after journalists began asking questions. Reform believes the agency may have been the only body with access to the bank-statement or payment information that later appeared in the press, and the complaint now centers on whether protected material was passed out of official channels.

The allegation lands in the middle of wider scrutiny around Tice’s finances and his company Quidnet. Separate reporting earlier in 2026 linked him to claims of unpaid corporation tax through four shell companies between 2020 and 2022, while another account said he was facing questions over nearly £600,000 in corporation tax tied to his property company. Labour also pressed for an HM Revenue & Customs investigation into his tax affairs in March 2026.

For Reform, the issue is not just the source of the leak but the identity of the records. Party officials have framed the case around private financial data, including bank statements connected to Tice and party leader Nigel Farage, arguing that if the NCA was responsible, the breach would go beyond party politics and into the integrity of the state’s financial surveillance machinery.

The National Crime Agency has not publicly responded in the material available so far. The dispute now sits at the intersection of privacy, law-enforcement confidentiality and political grievance, with Reform seeking to turn a media leak allegation into a broader challenge over who controls politically sensitive financial intelligence and how safely it is kept once it enters official hands.