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STV News
4 days ago
- Business
- STV News
Zia Yusuf quits as Reform UK chairman after burka ban row
The chairman of Reform UK has quit, saying working to get the party elected was no longer 'a good use of my time'. His decision follows a row in which he described a question to the Prime Minister concerning a ban on burkas from his party's newest MP as 'dumb'. The former banker who sold his tech start-up company for more than £200m has previously described himself as a 'proud British Muslim patriot'. He joined Nigel Farage's party 11 months ago as chairman, but on Thursday he suddenly quit after less than a year in the role. Announcing his resignation on Thursday afternoon, he said: '11 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.' 11 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… — Zia Yusuf (@ZiaYusufUK) June 5, 2025 Yusuf's unexpected resignation comes after he has spearheaded the party's DOGE initiative to identify and cut wasteful spending of taxpayer money, seemingly styled after Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency programme in the United States. It also comes less than a day after Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin, who won last month's Runcorn and Helsby by-election, called for a ban on burqas at her Prime Minister's Questions debut on Wednesday. Pochin asked Keir Starmer to ban the burqa 'in the interests of public safety'. Her call was rejected by the PM, and within minutes Reform UK declared that banning burqas is 'not party policy'. Yusuf said on social media site X: 'Nothing to do with me. Had no idea about the question nor that it wasn't policy. Busy with other stuff. I do think it's dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn't do.' Following Yusuf's resignation, Reform leader Nigel Farage said he was 'genuinely sorry' that he had decided to stand down, paying tribute to him as 'enormously talented' and 'a huge factor in our success' at the local elections. Farage added: 'Politics can be a highly pressured and difficult game and Zia has clearly had enough. He is a loss to us and public life.' Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch responded to Yusuf's announcement by saying Reform 'is not a political party'. 'It is a fan club,' she added, in a criticism of Farage. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
Chairman of UK's right-wing Reform party quits abruptly
Zia Yusuf, Chairman of the Reform party, looks on as he is interviewed by the media on the day of the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, in Widnes, Britain, May 1, 2025. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo LONDON - Zia Yusuf, the chairman of Britain's right-wing Reform UK party, resigned abruptly on Thursday following a row with its newest lawmaker, becoming the latest senior figure to exit the populist party. Reform, led by Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, has overtaken Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party in opinion polls as Britain's most popular political party less than a year after it won five parliamentary seats at a national election. Yusuf, a businessman who is not a lawmaker himself, was made Reform's chairman last year, as Farage went on a drive to professionalise the party. "I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office," Yusuf said, without giving further details of the reason for his exit. Hours before announcing his resignation, Yusuf, a self-described "British Muslim patriot", criticised Reform lawmaker Sarah Pochin over her question to Starmer in parliament on Wednesday asking if he would ban the burqa garment worn by some Muslim women. Starmer told Pochin in reply that he would "not follow her down that line", while Reform said shortly after that a burqa ban was not official party policy. "I do think it's dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn't do," Yusuf wrote in a post on X. His shock departure comes just days after he shared the stage with Farage and Pochin at a Reform press conference in London, and weeks after he helped the party to a strong performance in local elections and one parliamentary by-election in which Pochin was elected as a lawmaker. The party has seen divisions in its upper ranks before. In March Reform referred one of its lawmakers, Rupert Lowe, to police over allegations including threats of physical violence against Yusuf. Prosecutors later said they would not bring charges against Lowe, who was suspended by Reform. And in November its deputy leader Ben Habib quit, citing "fundamental differences" with Farage. Farage said he was "genuinely sorry" that Yusuf had decided to stand down. "Politics can be a highly pressured and difficult game and Zia has clearly had enough. He is a loss to us and public life," Farage wrote on X. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Zia Yusuf resigns as Reform UK chairman
Zia Yusuf has resigned as the chairman of Reform UK, saying "I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time". In a post on social media, Yusuf did not expand further on his reasons for stepping down. However, it comes after he said it was "dumb" for the party's newest MP to call on Sir Keir Starmer to ban the burka. Reform leader Nigel Farage said he was "genuinely sorry" Yusuf was resigning, describing him as "enormously talented". Farage said Yusuf was "a huge factor" in the party's success in last month's elections, when Reform won a by-election, two mayoral races and gained 677 new councillors. "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 wrote on social media. Deputy leader Richard Tice thanked Yusuf for his "major help in securing such progress and success over the last 11 months". "We would not be where we are today without him," he added. Reform UK prepares for real power on a council it now dominates Reform UK makes big gains in English local elections Sir John Curtice: The map that shows Reform's triumph was much more than a protest vote In a post on X, Yusuf wrote: "11 months ago I became chairman of Reform. I've worked full time as a volunteer to take the party from 14 to 30% [in national polls], 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." Earlier, Yusuf had criticised Reform MP Sarah Pochin - who won last month's Runcorn and Helsby by-election - for urging Sir Keir Starmer to ban the burka "in the interests of public safety" during her Prime Minister's Questions debut on Wednesday. He said it was "dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn't do". Pochin's call appeared to go down well with Reform's other MPs, although a party spokesman said it was "not party policy". Yusuf became Reform UK's chairman shortly after last year's general election, after previously being a member of the Conservative Party. A former banker who sold his tech start-up company for more than £200m, Yusuf has described himself as a "proud British Muslim patriot". He revealed that he had donated £200,000 to the party during the election campaign. As chairman, he was given the job of professionalising the party, wooing donors and increasing Reform UK's activist base. Yusuf was seen as central to Reform's operation and had been leading the party's so-called DOGE teams to cut wasteful spending in the councils it now controls. The acronyn refers to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency in the US. Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper 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."
ITV News
30-04-2025
- Politics
- ITV News
British Muslim women feel less safe than a year ago, poll suggests
Almost half of British Muslim women feel less safe than they did a year ago, blaming a rise in Islamophobia, according to a new poll. Research carried out by pollsters Survation found that 30% of Muslim respondents said they did not feel safe going out at night, while more than half said politicians in the UK had made them feel less welcome. Hina Khan, 27, told ITV News she regularly encounters Islamophobia online, including accusations that she supports extremism. The Londoner said the experience has made her feel unwelcome in the UK. ''I will never understand how this kind of hatred can exist in the world,'' she said. 'You have to shut yourself off from it, and build a kind of wall to separate the emotion from the facts. But even with that wall up, it still chips away at you. Over time, it makes you feel small. You start to question how safe you really are in this country — or whether you truly belong here. 'I sometimes feel loathed and unwelcome just walking through the streets of London — not because of anything I've done, but simply because of who I am – a Muslim woman.' The poll follows a warning earlier this year from Tell Mama, an organisation that monitors anti-Muslim hate, which reported that anti-Muslim hate in the UK had reached record levels. Tell Mama recorded 6,313 incidents of anti-Muslim hate in 2024, representing a 43% increase on the previous year. Of those, 5,837 were verified by the organisation. Its Director, Iman Atta, said the findings of the poll, along with Tell Mama's own data, highlighted the growing problem of Islamophobia and its influence on daily decision-making for British Muslims. 'This sense of a collective self-enforced sense of restraint of what they can do and when they can go out is troubling since it has mental and emotional impacts, as well as economic impacts that are acutely felt by British Muslim women,' Iman Atta said. More than a quarter of Muslims surveyed said they had stopped using social media entirely as a result of the abuse and harmful content they had encountered online. Experts say this been driven by changes to social media algorithms, the Southport murders last July and the Israel-Gaza conflict. Tufail Hussain, UK Director of Islamic Relief, which commissioned the poll, said that too many people were increasingly feeling emboldened to post harmful content and that more needed to be done to protect minority communities. 'Our charity has also felt the brunt of a worrying rise in Islamophobia online, and particularly across social media. People increasingly feel they can post malicious and hateful content without any consequences,' Mr Hussain said. 'Social media has become a dangerous space for false news in which organisations such as Islamic Relief, who are committed to helping and saving people's lives across the world including the UK, are instead subjected to hateful abuse. 'This survey is a wake-up call for the UK government to do everything it can do make the Muslim community safe and for tech companies to tackle hate speech and protect users online. We cannot tolerate abuse, harassment, or discrimination based on religion.' Dr Naomi Green, Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, said the findings were 'more evidence of the mainstreaming of Islamophobia'. 'Online spaces and weaponised algorithms like Musk's X/Twitter have become wastelands of abuse and misinformation towards Muslims and other vulnerable groups that is dragging our society into an ever darker space,' Dr Green said. 'Responsible digital regulation frameworks are essential to keeping our society safe both mentally and physically.'
Telegraph
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Take it from a moderate, Islamist extremism is still the biggest threat we face
'If the British public knew about the scale of cases coming into the courts around Islamist extremism, maybe then they would realise the risk that we all face'. This is a comment I made to a few friends recently. As a British Muslim, I have long questioned why some within parts of my community have sought to downplay the cancerous extremism that has taken hold of the minds of some young Muslims. Given the sheer number of Islamist extremist cases that have gone through our courts, and which I am going to list, it is patently obvious that the scale and the depth of Islamist extremism continues to pose a real and ongoing danger to our society and our national values. A deep dive into them will show the frightening nature of some of the planning, intent and hate for our society that some of the defendants have shown. So let's take a snapshot over the last two months and look at the types of cases that have entered our courts, and which demonstrate the scale and level of the problem that some seek to brush under the carpet in the ill-placed intention of maintaining 'social cohesion.' On March 7 a 20-year old Kazakh born UK resident, Dzhamilya Timaeva, was sentenced to a two-year community order after being convicted of possessing a terrorist video called 'incite the believers' which she had downloaded around October 2022. On April 2 2025, a teenager pleaded guilty to sharing Islamic State videos and propaganda on Telegram and Tiktok. 19-year-old Leo Walby admitted the six charges of dissemination of a terrorist publication between July and August 2024. On April 7 2025, an Islamist extremist born in Turkey and who arrived in the UK on a small boat was jailed for 45 months for supporting the Islamic State. On April 10, Farishta Jami who had planned to fly to Afghanistan to join the Islamic State and 'martyr' herself, was jailed for 17 years. She had complained she was distressed the police had released a picture of herself without her face veil, leading to the same police force having to re-release a picture with her fully veiled. She had settled in the UK in 2008 and had arrived from Afghanistan. What is interesting in the last case is that Jami, who was willing to 'martyr' herself and kill others for her Islamist extremist beliefs, had her personal rights protected by a British police force who ensured that her distress was relieved. This demonstrates the perverse narcissism that characterises so many Islamist extremists, where their rights and their beliefs trump even the basic right to life for others. In a simple snapshot of cases over the last 8 weeks, I have counted 7 cases where Islamist groups and their extremism has percolated into the minds of people who have lived in or arrived into our country. This amounts to about a case a week. In summary, the fact is that countering Islamist extremism, its funding flows, its ideology and its 'useful idiots' is something that we should repeatedly do. It also means calling out those who find it easier to talk about far-Right extremism but who fail to mention Islamist extremism. The latter remains the highest risk and threat to our country, and those who seek to place it in the same spectrum of other forms of extremism fail to reflect on the frequency and sheer number of cases coming through our courts. We need to remain focused and vigilant against this cancer in our society.
