Reform UK chairman quits after calling question from party’s newest MP ‘dumb’

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.”

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.