Zia Yusuf has resigned as the chair of Reform UK after suggesting it was “dumb” of the party’s newest MP to ask the prime minister if he would ban the burqa.
Yusuf, a donor and businessman, said he was resigning after less than a year in the job because he did not believe working to get a Reform government elected was a good use of his time.
His departure is a blow to Nigel Farage as he tries to professionalise his rapidly growing party, with political rivals saying it shows the Reform leader cannot work with other senior figures without falling out.
Yusuf, who is Muslim, quit after a dispute about the party’s handling of its position on the burqa. Sarah Pochin, the new Reform MP for Runcorn and Helsby, had pressed Keir Starmer on the issue in parliament on Wednesday, and Farage had also said on GB News that it was time for a debate about the burqa.
Hours before resigning, Yusuf had posted on X saying it was “dumb” for a party to have asked the prime minister to ban the burqa when it was not its own policy.
In a statement on X, Yusuf said: “Eleven months ago I became chairman of Reform.
“I’ve worked full-time as a volunteer to take the party from 14 to 30%, quadrupled its membership and delivered historic electoral results. I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office.”
Yusuf has been working on Reform’s new Elon Musk-style “department of government efficiency” (Doge) unit looking at cutting spending in councils where the party is in control.
The tech entrepreneur Nathaniel Fried, who was brought in this week with great fanfare to lead the unit, will also be departing alongside Yusuf, leaving the party’s plans to slash “waste” in local government in disarray.
The Reform chair has been close to Farage over the last year and the party leader is “upset” about Yusuf going, according to Tim Montgomerie, a Reform supporter and commentator. Yusuf’s exit is likely to add to the impression that Farage struggles to retain senior figures in his parties.
In a statement in response, Farage said he was “genuinely sorry that Zia Yusuf has decided to stand down as Reform UK chairman”.
“As I said just last week, he was a huge factor in our success on May 1 and is an enormously talented person. Politics can be a highly pressured and difficult game and Zia has clearly had enough. He is a loss to us and public life,” he said.
Farage expanded on the reasons for Yusuf’s departure on GB News, saying he could tell even before the burqa row that the chair had had enough and was “very disengaged”.
He said he was sad and paid tribute to Yusuf’s organisational skills, but also suggested he had weaknesses.
Revealing that he had 10 minutes warning of the resignation, Farage said: “When people have exceptional strengths in some areas of their life or other areas where perhaps they’re not quite so strong. I think, in terms of dealing with staff there was a bit of a Goldman Sachs-type mentality. I mean, politics is different,” he said. “And I think when you come from the background, he comes from, say, Goldman Sachs, where he worked, it is a really tough, brutal environment. Politics isn’t like that. Politics isn’t just about creating a financial bottom line, it’s about doing things that are thoughtful, creative and different.
“So were his interpersonal skills at the top of his list of attributes? No. But I always found, with me, he was very polite, very objective in conversations that I had.”
But Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrats deputy leader, said: “By sacking himself, Zia Yusuf seems to be leading the ‘UK Doge’ by example. You have to admire his commitment to the cause.
“It’s already clear Reform UK cannot deliver for the communities they are elected to stand up for. Instead, they have copied the Conservative playbook of fighting like rats in a sack.”
A Labour party spokesperson added: “If Nigel Farage can’t manage a handful of politicians, how on earth could he run a country? He has fallen out with everyone he has ever worked with. Reform are just not serious.”
The turmoil in Reform comes on a crucial day for the party in Scotland, where it is hoping to make headway against the Scottish National party and Labour in the Hamilton Scottish parliament byelection.
Only on Monday, Farage had held up Yusuf as an example of why Reform should not be accused of racism, as he spoke at a press conference in Aberdeen.
“I would remind everybody that the chairman of the party is Scottish-born, but comes from parents who come from the Indian subcontinent. But we don’t talk about race at all. We think everybody should be treated equally. We object very strongly to the segmentation of people into different types.”
Some of Reform’s membership had already turned against Yusuf over his role in the departure of one of the party’s most rightwing MPs, Rupert Lowe. Yusuf clashed with Lowe earlier this year. This led to Lowe’s suspension amid allegations of threats towards Yusuf, which were reported to the police. A decision was later taken not to charge the MP.
Farage said he would “rather eat razor blades” than let Lowe back in the party.
Yusuf is widely credited within Reform for having professionalised the party, hiring new people, setting up more branches and making it run in a more corporate way.
However, he also rubbed some of the Reform old guard up the wrong way with his management style.
Arron Banks, the Brexit donor and Reform mayoral candidate, was on Thursday night tipped as a potential successor as chair. In spite of Farage’s warm tribute to Yusuf, Banks posted on social media: “Astonishing that everyone thinks they are responsible for the meteoric Reform rise, as the old saying goes, success has many fathers and failure (is) an orphan. Zia worked very hard but struggled with relationships and people. The corks will be popping in party HQ this evening. Reform will power on …”
Yusuf’s decision to go does not appear to have been long planned. He had been giving interviews over the last week about Reform’s plans to slash the state by £300bn, and to raise the birthrate by encouraging “fertile” British women to have more children.
Earlier on Thursday, Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, confirmed that Reform was prepared to cut government spending to about 35% of national income – amounting to almost £300bn. He told the Politics Inside Out podcast that it had been a “great lie” told to the public that more money equalled better public services, and it should be possible to return spending ratios to mid-1990s levels. “At 35% of GDP, things were working more,” he said.
Yusuf had also said over the weekend that it should be possible to slash the state by £300bn to £400bn.
Dan Tomlinson, Labour’s mission champion for economic growth, said: “Reform’s fantasy economics would lead to a financial crisis whilst devastating public services. First they announced unfunded spending plans that would crash the economy like Liz Truss did, now they pledge to bulldoze through the public services people rely on every day.
“The NHS, our defences, police on the street, and the criminal justice system – all would be under threat with Reform.”
