Editorial: Reform UK party chair Zia ​Yusuf right to go if he can’t stomach policy

The ​Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said last evening he was “genuinely sorry” Zia Yusuf had quit as party chair.

Mr Yusuf said in a post on the social media platform X that working to get the party elected is no longer “a good use of my time”. His decision came after he criticised a question to the prime minister concerning a ban on burkas from his party’s newest MP. He wrote: “I do think it’s dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn’t do.”

What a joy for Sir Keir Starmer to get such news, only weeks after his party narrowly lost a safe Labour seat to Reform. Mr Farage put a brave face on this news, saying politics can be “highly pressured” and “Zia has clearly had enough”.

Mr Yusuf’s resignation comes on the day Reform hopes to cause an upset in Scotland, where it is contesting a Holyrood by-election.

But it is hard to avoid the sense that Mr Farage, who has significant political talent over the years (Douglas Carswell, Suzanne Evans, Ben Habib), might have backed the wrong man in recent dispute involving Rupert Lowe MP and Mr Yusuf.

Mr Lowe, who had denied making "threats of physical violence" against Mr Yusuf had been dismayed that Reform UK was not endorsing mass deportations.

Such a policy sounds brutal but in fact is quite reasonable. The disastrous loss of control of the UK’s borders has meant that the estimated net migration figure of 430,000 last year is seen as a triumph, because it is lower than the two preceding years, which were both heading towards the million mark. This puts untenable pressure on infrastructure such as housing and health.

As to a burka ban, France banned this 15 long years ago. Mr Yusuf came across well on television but if he does not have the stomach for reasonable, even belated, policies to protect UK society, then his departure is little loss.