Image source, EPA

Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice has just done a rapid round of appearances on BBC local radio - here's a flavour of what he told listeners:

• BBC Radio Leicester asked Tice if Reform UK had peaked too soon, he said the party was "making great progress". He argued that the council's pension funds were not being run efficiently
• Lincolnshire listeners heard him detail Reform plans for asylum seekers to be detained "remote locations", such as former RAF Scampton. Separately, he was pressed on how much time he spends in his constituency
• Speaking to BBC Radio Cornwall, Tice described a fishing deal with the EU as "untenable" and suggested Cornwall should extract lithium deposits, which he described as “energy treasure” under its feet
• To Bristol listeners, he claimed that Reform's plans to use remote detention centres to house asylum seekers would save the UK money, and defended the leader of Nottingham County Council banning a local newspaper from speaking to him
• Two words keep getting repeated across Tice's interviews: "wasteful spending." How that money is then repurposed will be the question voters will pose to Reform UK, and how the party is judged, writes political correspondent Matthew Cole

This is where we will end our live coverage. Thank you for joining us. You can keep up with the day's political news on BBC Politics.

Ewan Murrie
Political reporter

Richard Tice struggled to explain why his party opposes charging double council tax on second homes.

He told BBC Cornwall that the policy, designed to ease the coastal housing crisis, was hitting house prices and visitor numbers.

But commercial holiday lets aren’t affected because they are usually covered by business rates instead of council tax.

Tice said Reform was open to a “debate” about charging a “a bit more” council tax on second homes but insisted doubling it was “counterproductive”.

Richard Tice denies that a Reform government would turn the NHS into an "American-style" system when asked by a caller on BBC Radio Manchester.

However, he says that if elected, Reform would tackle the "legendary" amount of "mismanagement and waste" in the NHS.

He adds: "Frontline doctors and nurses, who do a great job, constantly contact me despairing at the waste of money.

"The NHS is not short of money, it’s short of good management and high-class productivity."

Zhara Simpson
BBC South West

Talking about Reform’s aim to scrap net zero and move towards oil and gas over renewables, Richard Tice says Cornwall has "energy treasure under our feet" with its "significant lithium deposits".

"We should be, for example, looking to see if we can promote that extraction and Cornwall will be more prosperous if the nation is more prosperous," he says.

He says that in the 1980s and 1990s, oil and gas extraction helped the nation grow but now we are "flatlining".

"Our taxes are going, and everyone feels like we are getting poorer," he says.

Zhara Simpson
BBC South West

During his conversation with BBC Radio Cornwall, Tice says the double council tax on second homes is "damaging property values".

The Reform UK deputy leader says people in areas where the tax levy was introduced, including in Cornwall, are being led to put their houses on the market, which in turn means fewer people are visiting tourist areas.

"All the evidence I’m hearing about doubling council tax is that it’s being counterproductive," he says, adding: "Sometimes you get what’s called the law of unintended consequences."

Tice also says Reform’s aim is to prioritise brownfield land to tackle the local housing crisis.

"The initial focus should be on regenerating brownfield sites, regenerating villages, and towns and where you need to use non-brownfield sites, sometimes what they call grey areas, as opposed to green field, then those have got to be carefully and sensitively looked at."

Tice is then challenged on his attitude to free speech, following news that the Reform UK leader of Nottinghamshire County Council had banned a local newspaper from speaking to him or any of his councillors.

In response Tice claims: "I do more media rounds than probably most politicians.”

But, he says, “there's a difference between the media and people who pretend to be media and act as activists, and that's where we draw the line," adding: "If someone is acting as an activist then actually maybe we don’t have to talk to them.

“We’re talking to lots of other people, we enjoy scrutiny and accountability," he says.

Asked how Reform UK would deal with asylum seekers living in hotels, Tice says the party would introduce "detention centres in remote areas of the country" and would look to "detain, rapidly process, rapidly reject illegal applications and remove people" – either to their country of origin or to another country.

This, he claims, would save "billions of pounds" compared to the current system.

"People are sick and tired of this abuse of our hospitality,” he adds.

Richard Tice next faces John Darvall from BBC Radio Bristol.

He asks the Reform UK deputy leader how his party can convince the West of England that it is "credible".

Tice says Reform is focused on "cutting out wasteful spending in the councils that we do control" and using them as examples for other local authorities.

Pointing to council pension schemes, as he has previously in this morning's radio rounds, Tice says the approach to these means there is a "grotesque overpayment of fees to rich city investment bankers [and] woeful underperformance to a negligent level".

Under Reform's proposed approach, the "sacrosanct" entitlements of council employees and retirees would "stay exactly the same", he says.

"No one has previously identified this, but we have, because we're more business-like, we’re just better at these things," he adds.

Ewan Murrie
Political reporter

More now on this fishing deal with the EU that Richard Tice has described as "untenable". The agreement gives EU fleets access to UK waters for another 12 years.

He pledged to "relook" at the deal – and even the wider UK-EU trade agreement – if Reform were to win power at a general election.

That promise will be music to the ears of Cornish fishers. But delivering on it could have big consequences for other areas of trade.

Any Reform government would run into the same tough trade-offs which have dogged both Labour and the Conservatives before them.

Zhara Simpson
BBC South West

Richard Tice tells BBC Cornwall’s Neil Caddy that Reform UK is “very unhappy” with the “appalling treatment” of the fishing community in Cornwall.

Tice says the local fishing community were not well served by the Conservative government when it re-negotiated the British fishing rights to extend access to the EU vessels for the next 12 years.

“We are very unhappy with it," he says.

“All of this will need to be relooked at together with the trade and co-operation agreement when we win a general election because there are some things that are untenable and that 12-year agreement was just a sell-out,” Tice says, describing the deal as a "complete betrayal".

Matthew Cole
Political Correspondent

Two words keep getting repeated across Richard Tice's interviews: "wasteful spending."

It’s a mantra the Reform UK deputy leader frequently echoes when asked about his party's approach to running councils.

He says his councillors are cutting "hundreds of millions" of pounds of wasteful spending.

How that money is then repurposed will be the question voters will pose to Reform UK, and how the party is judged.

Tice said that if his party can "deliver" and "perform" in areas where they currently run councils, then other authorities will be winnable too.

Ewan Murrie
Political reporter

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice says his party will run councils in a "more business-like" way — cutting waste and delivering savings.

But since taking control of 10 councils in May, its much-hyped "DOGE" efficiency unit has yet to find any game-changing savings.

On today’s broadcast round, Tice claimed millions could be saved by renegotiating charges on council pension funds.

But the big picture is that Reform councils, like all others, are being squeezed by soaring costs of caring for vulnerable children and adults — where savings are far harder to make.

Matthew Cole
Political Correspondent

Now running 12 councils, a big question ahead of this weekend's Reform UK party conference is - now you have it, what are you doing with power?

It's a question Richard Tice has faced a couple of times already in his run of interviews this morning.

His answer: "We're working hard" and "we're making progress"… but he didn't list specific policy changes brought in by his local authorities.

Nigel Farage's deputy says his councillors are "more business-like" than those of other parties, and are "cutting waste and woke policies". Tice also says his party can take its current lead in the opinion polls, and turn it into a general election win.

The deputy leader acknowledges it is still early days - but some might claim sharper examples of what his party has done with power might be needed to pave the road to Downing Street.

Tice is asked further about Reform UK’s strict policies around immigration - Finn asks him about people seeking asylum in the UK from war zones. "Do the humans ever trouble you?" he is asked.

"Yes, that's why I'm troubled that previous governments focus more on humans from overseas than British humans," Tice replies.

He says it is "the role of the government" to "improve the prosperity and public services for British citizens".

“No ifs, no buts and we’re unapologetic about that," he says, adding: “We cannot be responsible for every rogue, bad regime elsewhere in the world.”

Sharon Edwards
Political Reporter, BBC Radio Lincolnshire

Tice has just said there are "great plans to develop" the former RAF base in Scampton.

The former RAF Scampton – once home to the famous Dambusters and latterly the Red Arrows – was earmarked to take asylum seekers by the previous Conservative government.

It led to a huge public backlash especially as the local district council, together with a private investment firm, had drawn-up plans to significantly redevelop the site.

The Labour government scrapped the plans in September last year but have decided to sell it on the open market instead of giving the council first refusal.

Frances Finn asks Tice about immigration, citing Farage’s suggestion of using remote airbases for asylum seekers rather than hotels.

Tice responds by saying that they didn't use the word "airbases", instead, he says, they said "remote location".

“Remote means remote and Nigel has been up to Scampton and there are great plans to develop it which are supported by Andrea Jenkyns and myself.”

When asked if he had ruled out the use of the former RAF station in Scampton, Tice says “hopefully Scampton can be pushed forward for development, growth and jobs as soon as possible”.

Tice is asked what he has achieved in his constituency.

He says he has launched a "transport vision" for a bypass around Boston for potentially duelling the A16 from Peterborough to Boston” to “realign the railway”.

He says he had also spoken to businesses and farmers and cited the “appalling treatment under this Labour’s government family farm tax,” which he says Reform UK “would scrap” along with “all inheritance tax”.

“I think I’m pretty busy”, he adds.

Frances Finn asks Tice how much time he spends in his constituency of Boston and Skegness.

Tice says he has spent the last 10 days in his Lincolnshire constituency. “When I walk around Boston and Skegness I’m greeted by so many people who thank me for the work I’m doing," he adds.

“They thank me for the fact I was the first MP to get to 100 speeches as a new MP, all the time without notes because I speak with conviction and principle.”

It's now broadcaster Frances Finn's turn to quiz Boston and Skegness MP Richard Tice on BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

Tice says “there’s a long way to go and a lot of hard work to be done but people are taking us seriously as potentially the next elected party of the UK".

“We are cutting out waste and identifying savings," he adds.

Tice tells BBC Radio Leicester he believes Reform UK can win the argument on immigration.

"We’ve come up with a policy on deportations and immigration which I think people respect and if you’re here illegally then don’t expect to stay here forever," he says.

Tice claims people in the country illegally are "consuming public services" and "taking housing from British citizens".