‘There are no disasters, only opportunities.’ Boris Johnson’s famous mantra is being embraced by Nigel Farage as he tries to turn Reform into a vehicle for government. Zia Yusuf’s un-resignation as party chairman last week offered Farage the chance to restructure his top team. At a press conference this morning, a chastened Yusuf handed over the baton to his successor, shaking hands under Farage’s watchful eye.
Reform’s new chairman is Dr David Bull, a former GP, TalkTV personality and onetime MEP for the Brexit party. Yusuf lavished praise on Bull, declaring him a ‘more affable and charming man than I am’ and ‘universally loved across the party’. That is a tacit acknowledgement of some of the tensions caused by Yusuf’s professionalisation drive since his appointment last summer.
Bull’s duties will be focused on rallying the Reform UK’s grassroots and sharing the burden of media duties, with back-office functions handled by a deputy. The splitting of the role is a sensible move. The Tories have long split the functions of their party chairman between a forward-facing MP and a peer focused on fund-raising. Doing both, as Yusuf found, can prove to be too much of a burden.
Bull is both a gregarious character and a longtime Farage loyalist. ‘Can’t spell ebullient without Bull’, says one insider. The new chairman fondly told his audience that Reform was ‘founded at my kitchen table’ out of the auspices of the Brexit party. Having been replaced as Reform deputy leader by Richard Tice in July 2024, Bull has impressed with his subsequent willingness to compere events like the party’s Birmingham rally in March. His medical experience could help deflect Labour attacks about Farage’s past comments on the NHS too.
It was left to Bull’s leader to handle questions from the assembled press. Farage said that his long-awaited borders announcement, expected in May, had now been ‘overtaken’ by events; no new date has yet been set for when the party’s policy will be published. Asked about today’s Electoral Commission figures which show the Tories raised £3.3 million in Q1 of 2025 compared to Reform’s £1.48 million, he pointed out that this figure was five times higher than the previous quarter.
Farage defended Nick Candy, the party’s Honorary Treasurer, but not all within Reform are impressed by him. ‘The emphasis is very much on the Honorary’, remarked one senior aide last week. For all Bull’s cheerleading, further sums will be required if Reform can compete against Labour’s unions and the Tories’ City contacts in 2029.
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