Tice's comments come after his partner, journalist Isabel Oakeshott, recently wrote about her experience of moving to Dubai. In a column for the Telegraph, she called the city the "ultimate multi-cultural success story" and praised its "booming economy" and "culture of respect." Tice said he agreed with her. The practice of standing for the anthem every morning in Dubai schools "educates children about being proud of the country that you are living in," he argued. Dubai is ruled as an absolute monarchy, with a hereditary royal family at the head of government, and was found by Amnesty international to jail political prisoners. It is ranked 152 out of 183 for civil liberties on the international table maintained by Sweden's Varieties of Democracy Institute. Pressed that the UAE did not share Western values, Tice said: "No-one's saying everything's perfect about it", but added: "Our basic British values at the moment are not working". "Crime is through the roof, people who commit crimes are not being required to serve proper justice," he said. "Foreign criminals are blocking up our jails - so yeah, the country is not working for British citizens. "And that's why they voted for Reform in massive numbers where they're allowed to vote." Reform won most votes, most seats and overall control of the most councils at the local elections in England on 1 May, where it also took the Runcorn and Helsby constituency off Labour in a tightly-fought by-election.