Zia Yusuf’s resignation won’t harm Reform

The sudden resignation of Reform UK’s chairman Zia Yusuf came as a shock in Westminster yesterday – but is unlikely to do the party much lasting damage. Yusuf, 38, a successful businessman and a former Goldman Sachs banker, said in a terse and huffy statement that working for the election of a Reform government was no longer a good use of his time. 

While Yusuf gave no other specific reason for his departure , the move was almost certainly triggered by his anger at new Reform MP Sarah Pochin’s question to Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday. Pochin, who won the Runcorn and Helsby seat from Labour last month, asked the Prime Minister if he would consider banning the burqa – the face cover worn by pious Muslim women – as other European countries have done.

Yusuf, an observant Muslim himself, tweeted that the question was ‘dumb’.