Zia Yusuf has resigned as the chairman of Reform UK, saying working to get the party elected was no longer “a good use of my time”.
In a post on social media, external, 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.
However, he told GB News he believed Yusuf had “had enough” of politics, which can be “totally unrelenting”.
Farage said he had “suspicions” Yusuf might quit after he seemed “very disengaged” when the pair spoke on Wednesday morning but was only given a “10-minute warning” his resignation was coming.
Asked about reports that some in the party found Yusuf difficult to deal with, Farage said “not everyone got on with him”.
He added: “Were his interpersonal skills at the top of his list of attributes? No. But I always found him, with me, very polite.”
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 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”.
The party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, said there should be a “national debate” about a possible ban.
However he declined to state what his position would be in such a debate.
In response to Yusuf quitting, Pochin said he had been “a great friend and colleague”, adding that “the professionalisation he brought to Reform UK will have a lasting legacy”.
The resignation of Zia Yusuf as Reform UK’s chairman matters because he was a central character in the stand out trend in British politics since the general election – the rise and rise of Nigel Farage’s party.
A Muslim son of Sri Lankan immigrants, a former Conservative, when he was unveiled by Reform almost exactly a year ago, as a donor who had just handed the party £200,000.
Yusuf is a self-made multi millionaire after setting up and then selling Velocity Black, a luxury concierge service.
Not long after his donation to Reform, he was offered and accepted the job of party chairman. And he wouldn’t just be someone behind the scenes, he would be a public figure too.
Yusuf, who was previously a member of the Conservative Party, became Reform UK’s chairman shortly after last year’s general election.
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 donated £200,000 to Reform during the general election campaign and 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 spearheading the party’s so-called Doge teams to cut wasteful spending in the councils it now controls.
The acronym refers to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in the US.
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Zia Yusuf has resigned as the chairman of Reform UK, saying working to get the party elected was no longer “a good use of my time”.
In a post on social media, external, 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.
However, he told GB News he believed Yusuf had “had enough” of politics, which can be “totally unrelenting”.
Farage said he had “suspicions” Yusuf might quit after he seemed “very disengaged” when the pair spoke on Wednesday morning but was only given a “10-minute warning” his resignation was coming.
Asked about reports that some in the party found Yusuf difficult to deal with, Farage said “not everyone got on with him”.
He added: “Were his interpersonal skills at the top of his list of attributes? No. But I always found him, with me, very polite.”
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 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”.
The party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, said there should be a “national debate” about a possible ban.
However he declined to state what his position would be in such a debate.
In response to Yusuf quitting, Pochin said he had been “a great friend and colleague”, adding that “the professionalisation he brought to Reform UK will have a lasting legacy”.
The resignation of Zia Yusuf as Reform UK’s chairman matters because he was a central character in the stand out trend in British politics since the general election – the rise and rise of Nigel Farage’s party.
A Muslim son of Sri Lankan immigrants, a former Conservative, when he was unveiled by Reform almost exactly a year ago, as a donor who had just handed the party £200,000.
Yusuf is a self-made multi millionaire after setting up and then selling Velocity Black, a luxury concierge service.
Not long after his donation to Reform, he was offered and accepted the job of party chairman. And he wouldn’t just be someone behind the scenes, he would be a public figure too.
Yusuf, who was previously a member of the Conservative Party, became Reform UK’s chairman shortly after last year’s general election.
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 donated £200,000 to Reform during the general election campaign and 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 spearheading the party’s so-called Doge teams to cut wasteful spending in the councils it now controls.
The acronym refers to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in the US.
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