About 15 minutes before Zia Yusuf’s shock resignation, a few senior Reform figures were warned something was due to happen.
“It was a surprise, but we knew something was up,” a senior party source tells me.
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Alongside Nigel Farage and Richard Tice, Mr Yusuf has been an increasingly recognisable face in Reform UK.
That was no accident: he was being put forward for more media interviews and was seen by some, including Mr Farage, as the future of the party.
So what went wrong? A senior source tells me Mr Yusuf “definitely was not pushed” and the situation was very different to the resignation of former Reform MP Rupert Lowe.
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The source said relations between the party leader and Mr Yusuf are “absolutely fine” and the pair have been in contact.
In his statement, the former chairman said the role was no longer “a good use of my time”.
Nigel Farage saw Zia Yusuf as the future of the party. Pic: PA
Behind the scenes, Mr Yusuf did have critics. He angered some when the police became involved in an investigation into Mr Lowe.
On Wednesday, Mr Yusuf publicly distanced himself from the party’s new MP, Sarah Pochin, when she asked Sir Keir Starmer about a burka ban at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Reform said the ban wasn’t party policy – and the chairman called it a “dumb” thing to ask in a post on X.
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Reform UK MP pushes for burka ban
The source said that before Ms Pochin’s comments, Mr Yusuf was wavering: “He just got sick of all the abuse online.”
They said the Reform UK leader was “genuinely saddened” by the former chairman’s resignation, and Mr Yusuf was “not pushed aside, he still had full control” amidst claims of a power struggle.
Another source close to the party, however, said Mr Yusuf had committed several “politically inexperienced” missteps, and a row had been brewing over his social media post about Ms Pochin.
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Asked about accusations that, as we saw with UKIP, Mr Farage can’t hold the top of his party together, a senior source said: “The Rupert Lowe thing was far bigger and that did not affect our polling or results in May.”
They pointed to the rapid turnover of Conservative chairmen before they lost the election, and said the party was “not rushing” to appoint a new chairman.
