Zia Yusuf Has Resigned from Reform UK. Good Riddance.

Zia Yusuf has resigned as Chairman of Reform UK, and not a moment too soon.

Source: Zia Yusuf, X (5 June 2025).

Far from making it easier to discuss controversial issues with his identity-based body armour, Yusuf had a chilling effect on Reform’s willingness to criticise immigration and Islam in a way its existing supporters and the public at large want them to.

In Andrew Pierce’s latest piece for the Daily Mail, he cites Reform insiders and says that,

Yusuf, who was born in Scotland, was aghast by her remarks on the burka, which he feared risked scuppering his plans to recruit thousands of Muslim members to Reform.

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I’ve long heard talk he was failing to gel with other senior Reformers.

He also alienated many grassroot members and minor party officials.

[…]

Last night, I’m told Yusuf felt ‘angry and humiliated’.

And mark my words: this will not be the last we hear from him.

The fallout from the brutal treatment of Rupert Lowe continues – and these events speak of deep trouble at the heart of Britain’s fastest-growing political movement.

Yusuf disparaged critical friends, insulted its new MP Sarah Pochin, and deterred new talent from joining Reform despite its commanding poll lead and local elections victory.

I joined my friend, former Brexit party MEP

Alex Phillips

on Talk to discuss the breaking news yesterday.

Yusuf’s resignation came hours after he called new MP Sarah Pochin “dumb” for using her maiden question in the House of Commons to ask Keir Starmer,

“Given the Prime Minister’s desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he—in the interests of public safety—follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others, and ban the burqa?”

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This followed Yusuf calling the police on beloved MP Rupert Lowe, orchestrating his unceremonious ousting from the party and botching the attempt to rubbish Rupert’s reputation.

I spoke with Rupert Lowe this week, before Yusuf’s dramatic exit. The interview releases tomorrow, Saturday the 7th of June, at 12:00 PM (UK time).

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Reform should learn from these mistakes and move forward by making more room in the Overton Window for those of us without Parliamentary privilege.

However, I am discouraged that Nigel Farage still feels the need to blame “the Alt-Right” and “Indian bots” for his party’s own supporters’ substantive criticisms of the former party Chairman.

“Can I just tell you that it's a hundred hours a week, it's seven days a week, it is totally unrelenting — on X in particular. It's full of vile trolls, particularly the Alt-Right types, who have been just outright horrific towards Zia right from the very start. And I think he's just said to himself, “You know what, there are other things I can do with my life.” He's just had enough.

[…]

I think that the persistent campaign against him on X, and much of it coming from Indian bots, right, has perhaps, you know, made some Reform members question him, question his motives. All of that's completely unfair.”

Neither I nor any of the long-time Brexit and Farage loyalists I have spoken to who couldn’t stand Yusuf and wanted rid of him are white nationalists or were misled by foreign misinformation to dislike Zia.

It is not “completely unfair” to criticise a Chairman who was a relative newcomer to the national populist movement, and who estranged and mistreated long-time allies and local branches.

Zia Yusuf’s departure is fantastic news for Reform UK. I can only encourage them to take the opportunity to address, rather than disparage, their own supporters’ well-founded concerns about demographic and cultural change, and the threat posed by the rise of Islam.

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