Britain’s Conservatives are the official opposition party in the U.K.’s House of Commons, while Davey’s Liberal Democrats returned to being the third-largest party after winning 72 seats at last year’s general election.
Farage currently has just four MPs in place, after one resigned the whip at the weekend amid conduct questions. But Reform UK is consistently leading in national polls, and Britain’s Labour government is targeting them as its key opponents at the next election, expected by 2029.
“This is an outrageous and deliberate snub,” Farage’s deputy Tice hit out in an angry statement Monday.
“Reform is polling higher than all of the other parties, and by denying Nigel a meeting with Macron, the Establishment is shutting its eyes to the lights of the Reform train that is coming,” Tice added.
He then sought to tie the move to wider rows about migrants crossing the English Channel. “If Macron was confident of his handling of the small boats issue, he would happily meet with Nigel,” Tice added.
Macron will visit the U.K. for a three-day trip amid a thaw in relations between London and Paris after Brexit.