Reform UK chief Richard Tice accuses cash-only barber outlets of cash laundering | EUROtoday

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Nigel Farage and Richard Tice took purpose at barber outlets and sweet shops at Reform UK’s immigration coverage launch.

Speaking at a press convention in central London on Thursday, the Reform UK chief Mr Tice recommended some cash-only barber outlets on UK excessive streets had been “fronts for money laundering and drug money”.

He was talking as his occasion proposed a multi-billion pound tax on companies using abroad staff.

“You can see high streets with five, six, seven barber shops in them, thousands of new barber shops,” Mr Farage stated whereas on stage with Mr Tice.

They had been then requested by a reporter what accusation they had been making.

Mr Tice added: “I’ll tell you what the accusation is actually, and I know it’s true, because you go to towns and people are saying shop after shop after shop.

“I mean, I don’t know, maybe it was Covid, maybe our hair is growing faster.

“Seriously, how come lots of these new barber shops have got no customers in them? How come they all want cash only?

“These are fronts for money laundering and drug money, and someone has to talk about it and someone has to have the courage to say that the authorities they’re either incompetent and don’t know about it.”

According to the Local Data Company, there are 18,624 barber outlets working within the UK, with 665 having opened final 12 months.

But Mr Tice didn’t cease on barber outlets.

He added: “You look at the price of the sweets in these shops and they’re fake sweets.

“I’ve literally gone in to test it and see they’re fake sweets. They’re disgusting and there’s never any customers in them. It’s another money laundering front.”

On the “employer immigration tax” proposed by the occasion, Mr Tice stated the UK had an “addiction” to “cheap overseas labour”.

He stated: “This drug is being pushed on every street corner by the Labour party and by the Tories. They believe that this drug, this addiction, is good for the British economy. Let me tell you today it’s not.”

He added: “What we need is a cure to this addiction and the cure is an employer immigration tax.”

Mr Tice stated Reform would require corporations to pay a nationwide insurance coverage “premium” of 20 per cent of an worker’s wage, versus 13.8 per cent, if the employee is from abroad.

Exemptions would exist for companies using 5 folks or fewer and for healthcare and social care, the occasion stated.

Mr Farage described the plan as a “bold, innovative policy”.

When it was identified such a coverage would hit Britain’s Indian eating places and kebab outlets and subsequently could possibly be thought-about a “curry tax”, Mr Farage laughed earlier than noting he enjoys going for a late evening curry.

Mr Farage pointed to efforts to coach British folks to turn out to be curry cooks, saying: “The point is to reduce our reliance on overseas unskilled labour.

“Clearly somebody who is a qualified curry chef is not going to be in the unskilled or low wage bracket.

“What Richard is laying out here is it’s about incentives and disincentives.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has already dominated out a cope with Reform, which is placing strain on the Tories over points together with immigration coverage.

Reform is ready to contest all seats in England, Scotland and Wales on the General Election.