Zia Yusuf has returned to Reform UK following a row over banning burqas (Photo: Wikimedia commons)
Divisions at the top of far right party Reform UK saw Zia Yusuf return to Reform UK on Saturday—only days after resigning as chair on Thursday.
His resignation and then return flows from a power struggle around Nigel Farage’s leadership, which saw Yusuf sidelined in recent months.
He claimed in an interview with The Times newspaper that his decision to quit was a “mistake”, the result of “exhaustion” and working for 11 months “without a day off”.
Yusuf told The Times that he wanted to make it “crystal clear” that “I certainly did not resign because I have any strong views about the burqa itself”.
Instead, he spoke about feeling blindsided by the decision, describing the controversy as an “internal miscommunication issue”.
“I learnt about it for the first time on X,” he added. “I don’t mind saying that it frustrated me. But these things happen. I’m not an MP, it’s perfectly reasonable for me not to have known about it and Sarah did inform the other MPs.”
Yusuf continued to say that if there was a vote in parliament, he “would probably vote to ban” the burqa. It shows that the leadership of Reform UK remains united in their racism.
That is why the left cannot be complacent or think Reform UK will tear itself apart.
Internal communications seen by Socialist Worker show that Reform UK councillors and members are as confident as ever—and were even happy to see Yusuf go.
Yusuf’s resignation came soon after he attacked Reform UK’s newest MP Sarah Pochin, who called on Keir Starmer to ban burqas on Wednesday. She asked during prime minister’s questions whether Starmer would “in the interests of public safety, follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others and ban the burka?”
Lee Anderson, another Reform UK MP, then backed the idea on X.
But Reform UK issued a statement that banning the burqa as not official party policy. On Thursday morning, Yusuf said, “I do think it’s dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn’t do.
“Nothing to do with me. Had no idea about the question, nor that it wasn’t policy. Busy with other stuff.”
One Reform UK councillor said on a party chat that he “didn’t trust Zia anyway” after his resignation. On Reform UK online posts and streams of speeches, it is common to see attacks on Yusuf for his Muslim heritage.
Another Reform UK member said, “The players have changed, but the game remains the same. Reform is bigger than Zia Yusuf.” And another boasted, “We are on a long-term upward course and will not only survive this blip, but continue on our path to government.”
A Reform UK local election candidate said, “I can hope Ben Habib and Lowe can now come back.”
Former deputy leader Habib advocated for closer ties with fascist Tommy Robinson and was removed during the party’s professionalisation drive.
Lowe was the party’s most right wing MP before he lost the party whip after falling out with Yusuf and Nigel Farage.
Reform UK Luton North constituency spokesperson said on a party chat that Yusuf had “done a lot for the party”. But he complained that the “loss of a lot of good people in the party since Yusuf’s arrival who helped start this movement didn’t help matters either”.
Yusuf is no liberal and has said Reform UK should look to the fascist AfD in Germany and Marine Le Pen’s RN in France as inspiration.
The right wing Telegraph newspaper reported that Yusuf felt undermined by recent attempts to loosen his grip on internal power. Aaron Lobo, Nigel Farage’s former producer on GB News, has been promoted to operations director in the party recently.
The decision resulted in Yusuf losing control over several areas of responsibility, leading to heightened tensions.
This was echoed in the right wing Daily Express newspaper’s reports. They said that Yusuf “has been sidelined within the party and is no longer responsible for a number of his previous commitments”.
It claimed that Yusuf had been “shunted” full-time to the party’s Doge programme, aimed at pushing through cuts in councils.
But Reform UK sources claim that Yusuf wasn’t pushed out, and the resignation came as a surprise. Farage revealed that he had ten minutes warning of the resignation and said he was “genuinely sorry” to see Yusuf go.
Nor does the resignation seem long planned. Earlier in the week Yusuf spoke about Reform UK’s plans to slash the state by £300 billion and to raise the birthrate by encouraging “fertile” British women to have more children.
Yet Farage’s statement on GB News pointed to personality clashes behind the scenes. “Were his interpersonal skills at the top of his list of attributes? No,” he said.
Others, such as Reform UK mayoral candidate and Brexit campaign donor Arron Banks, were more brutal when responding to the news of Yusuf’s resignation. Banks said on social media, “Zia worked very hard but struggled with relationships and people. The corks will be popping in party HQ this evening. Reform will power on.”
And Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice doubled down on the Islamophobic policy of burqa bans. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that “it is right” to “have a debate about whether or not the burqa is appropriate for a nation that’s founded in Christianity, where women are equal citizens and should not be viewed as second-class citizens”.
Tice said he was “concerned” that the burqa was a “repressive item of clothing”, adding, ““Let’s ask women who wear the burqa, is that genuinely their choice?”
Women should be able to wear whatever they want to wear free from the bigots of Reform UK. Anti-racists have to keep campaigning against Reform UK’s racism to migrants, refugees and Muslims.
Racism first developed as a justification for enslavement
