A tweet from Richard Tice last year has resurfaced following Jonathan Gullis’ defection to the party.
On Monday, Gullis – who lost his seat at last year’s general election and has since complained about not being able to find work – announced he was ditching the Conservatives for a lighter shade of blue.
In a statement, the former minister and Tory chair lashed out at his now-former party, saying that they had ‘lost the trust’ of the nation.
READ NEXT: Lee Anderson claims school is teaching pupils that Reform are ‘extreme right-wing’
Gullis has followed in the footsteps of the likes of Nadine Dorries, Andrea Jenkyns and Danny Kruger in joining Reform from the Tories.
Shortly after the news of Gullis’ defection, people found a potentially awkward post from Reform’s Tice about Gullis.
Tice, who was leader of Reform at the time of the social media post in March 2024, wrote that he had a “special Easter message” for Gullis.
“Given the multiple bits of embarrassing personal information we have on you, I suggest you pipe down on your attacks against me,” he said.
The post was shared on X this week by Labour MP Luke Charters, who simply captioned it with a popcorn emoji.
Tice’s tweet from last March was after Gullis had hit out Reform following the revelation that its candidates included a convicted animal abuser and a fortune-teller who sold spells on OnlyFans.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Gullis had said: “Reform says its candidates have been vetted and given that all of this information was in the public domain, we can only assume this cast of characters passed Mr Tice’s muster.
“We are clearly not just talking about a ‘few rotten eggs’ here. If you are promoting candidates banned from looking after dogs, how can you honestly say they are capable of looking after the interests of their constituents?”
Also in March 2024, Gullis proudly stated that there was a “not a cat in hell’s chance” of him joining Reform.
Gullis made the comment in reaction to Lee Anderson’s defection to Reform, with Gullis criticising the Ashfield MP for swapping political shades of blue.
He went on to say takes “courage and conviction to sometimes stay within something like a political party.”