‘No Longer a Good Use of My Time’: Reform UK Chairman Zia Yusuf Steps Down After Burqa Ban Disagreement

Zia Yusuf, the businessman who was appointed Chairman of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party in July 2024 fired a parting shot as he announced his resignation from office on Thursday evening.

Brexit leader Nigel Farage MP expressed his regret at the surprise departure of the Chairman of his political party, Reform UK, stating: “I am genuinely sorry that Zia Yusuf has decided to stand down as Reform UK Chairman”. Farage also recalled that he frequently took time to hail Yusuf during Reform UK events, noting: “As I said just last week, he was a huge factor in our success on May 1st and is an enormously talented person.”

Farage laid the blame of the departure on “highly pressured and difficult” British politics, and said Thursday evening: “Not everyone got on with him. You know what? It’s called politics.”.

Muhammad Ziauddin Yusuf (‘Zia’) touted his claimed achievements in his eleven months at the top of Reform UK as he announced his departure, but did so with an apparently snide final remark, declaring: “I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office”. Per The Telegraph, Yusuf gave Mr Farage just ten minutes’ warning before publishing his note.

Significantly, the sudden resignation comes just hours after Yusuf, who is of Muslim faith, lashed out at Reform UK’s newest Member of Parliament Sarah Pochin, calling her demand in the House of Commons to ban the burqa “dumb”.

Pochin had used her maiden question in Parliament to ask the Prime Minister: “Given the prime minister’s desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he in the interests of public safety follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others and ban the burqa?”. Yusuf responded: “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”.

The burqa is an all-covering garment imposed on women by fundamentalist Islam. Concerningly, in some cases it is even forced on children, something the French government is now looking to ban.

As previously reported, a 2018 study found over 70 per cent of Britons supported banning the burqa to a greater or lesser extent.

Cryptically, Rupert Lowe MP — who was kicked out of Reform UK earlier this year after apparently falling foul of Yusuf — replied to the resignation with a picture of him enjoying the sea.