Reform UK chair blames ‘lefties’ for causing AI candidate theories with ‘nonsense and lies’

Reform UK chairman Richard Tice dismissed theories that one of his party’s candidates was an AI bot, describing claims as coming from “lefties who can’t believe we did so well.”

Online commentators had speculated that a picture of Mark Matlock, who stood in the Clapham and Brixton Hill constituency, was computer-generated.

Mr Matlock spoke to The Independent on the phone on Monday.

“This is the lefties who can’t believe we did so well, they still [propagate] nonsense and lies and fibs,” Mr Tice said of the theories during an appearance on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, 10 July.