Tice rejects antisemitism complaint over Israel influence debate row

A complaint to Parliament’s standards watchdog questions whether Richard Tice should have declared or referenced his register of interests during a Westminster Hall debate on Israeli influence on 22 June 2026. Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader and MP for Boston and Skegness, said the petition behind the debate was “antisemitic in its very motivation and at its core.”

The debate in the House of Commons was titled “UK Politics: Pro-Israel Influence” and centred on a petition calling for “a public inquiry into pro-Israel influence on politics & democracy.” The standards issue is not the argument over the petition itself, but whether Tice’s remarks should have been accompanied by disclosure under Parliament’s rules.

Those rules require MPs to register financial interests that might reasonably be thought to influence their actions, speeches or votes. Parliament’s Commons register of interests, which includes Tice’s entry, is updated online fortnightly when the House is sitting. Tice has been an MP since 4 July 2024.

The row has been sharpened by earlier travel and contacts connected to Reform Friends of Israel. In September 2025, Tice visited Israel and met Israeli ministers on a trip funded by the group, with funding totalling £6,500. Reform figures travelled to Israel in November 2025 and went to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in Syria, with those visits funded by the Israeli foreign affairs ministry.

Jason Pearlman, who had been involved in setting up Reform Friends of Israel, is no longer involved with the group and has returned to live in Israel. Pearlman had previously been the international media adviser to Israeli president Isaac Herzog until December 2025.

Nigel Farage, Reform UK’s leader, was found by the parliamentary commissioner for standards to have breached MPs’ rules 17 times by failing to register financial interests totalling £384,000 within the 28-day limit.