SCHOOLS will be forced to teach pupils to love the UK and that the British Empire did “more good for the world than it did bad” if Reform UK’s Nigel Farage becomes the next prime minister.
Zia Yusuf, chairperson of Reform and former Tory party member, said it is his main ambition to make Farage the UK’s next prime minister and that part of his party’s mission is the “remoralisation of young people”.
Reform UK’s manifesto last year promised a more “patriotic curriculum”, along with 20% tax relief on private school fees.
Yusuf, who was born in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, to parents who had migrated from Sri Lanka, his father was a paediatrician and his mother a nurse, said that young people are taught to “hate their country”.
The 39-year-old added that he thinks the British Empire “was not perfect” but overall did much “more good for the world than it did bad” and that it should be taught to school kids.
Yusuf (below) told The Times: “There has been an industrial-scale demoralisation, particularly of young people in this country, who are basically being taught quite deliberately that they should hate their country; they should be deeply ashamed of their country’s history; that the United Kingdom had a brutal empire.
He added: “Look, of course, you know, the British Empire was not perfect, but I actually think overall the British Empire did much more good for the world than it did bad.
“I think this country has one of the most profoundly impressive and decisively impactful histories of any country in the world.
“These things are not taught and embedded into British people in the way that they are in many other countries. Go to China, go to Russia, go to the United States of America … And so we’ve got to revive that … Ultimately, what we’ve got to do is give young people a sense of belonging again.”
Yusuf, who attended Hampton School in southwest London and studied international relations at the London School of Economics, said there needs to be less “crazy modern art” and more historical statues of figures.
He said within the first couple of months of a Reform government, the party would erect statues of British figures in a bid to end “all this woke nonsense”.
“How many times do you see a statue of a truly great Briton from the past being erected in Trafalgar Square?” he said.
“You see the opposite. You see crazy modern art. I mean if people want to go and enjoy modern art, cool, go enjoy that. Don’t put it in Trafalgar Square.”
Yusuf added: “How many young people know who Isambard Kingdom Brunel is? Look at the character assassination that has occurred on the legacy of Sir Winston Churchill.
“The fact that they have to cover up his statue because they don’t want to provoke protesters. I mean that’s the sort of utterly indefensible so-called leadership that we’ve had and young people feel that in their bones.”
