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'Otherwise, we will not have a car industry in five to seven years,' the Reform deputy leader warned

Richard Tice has called for 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to protect the British motor industry, warning Western carmakers are heading for the “dustbin of history”.

The Reform UK deputy leader said the Government’s Net Zero policies and high energy costs were driving deindustrialisation, as he criticised the decline in British manufacturing.

Speaking to GB News, Mr Tice said the problems facing brands like Jaguar Land Rover were part of a wider crisis, after the company announced 4,000 redundancies.

“Western car manufacturers are heading into the dustbin of history,” he warned.

To that end, the Reform MP argued Britain must follow the US in imposing levies on Chinese electric vehicles.

“Unless we put 100 per cent tariffs on all Chinese electric vehicles as the Americans have done, otherwise we will not have a car industry in five to seven years,” he said.

Mr Tice also criticised the Government for allowing Transport for London to purchase more than 300 Chinese electric buses.

“Where’s this pro-British manufacturing strategy when we’re sending all our money to Beijing to buy Chinese buses, for heaven’s sake?", he asked.

His comments came after GB News revealed that Chinese firm Build Your Dreams, more commonly known by its acronym BYD, has quickly taken over the capital’s bus network.

As of March 2025, 1,197 BYD models were part of TFL’s bus fleet, a 359 per cent increase since 2020, exclusive figures obtained by The People’s Channel revealed.

Mr Tice discussed the issue as the latest figures showed the British economy grew by 0.4 per cent in July.

While admitting there was some cause for optimism, the Reform MP argued it showed how low expectations were for the British economy.

“Doesn't it show how bad things are that people's expectations were for essentially the square root of zero?”, he said.

To that end, he criticised Labour’s handling of the economy despite making pledges about “industrialising Britain and focusing on an industrial strategy month after month.

“Production is down by half a per cent over three months, construction down by half a per cent over three months.

“These are disastrous numbers. And they're all driven by the deindustrialisation of Britain because of high energy costs, because of Net Zero.”

Mr Tice argued that the British public desired a reality check on the true state of the economy.

He told GB News: “Everybody wants hope. Everyone wants to be optimistic. But equally, people are sick and tired of being misled into thinking everything's fine when everybody can clearly see it's not.

“We've got to make some difficult decisions. We're spending too much money. We've got to make some cutbacks.

“We've got to cut out the waste, make some efficiencies, get rid of daft overregulation."