‘Zia Yusuf is a problem. Sack him,’ Reform insiders urge Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage should resist the urge to shift further to the right and consider sacking Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesman, figures within the party have said after its defeat to Labour in the Makerfield byelection.

Reform’s candidate Rob Kenyon came second, with Andy Burnham taking a comfortable 55% vote share – a 3.4 point swing from Reform to Labour since the 2024 general election.

Individuals within the party are understood to be making personal pleas to Farage this weekend to readopt his red lines on far-right extremism, and are seeking to remove “trigger happy” Yusuf from his role. “Zia’s a big problem,” said one involved.

Another source said there were “some serious splits within the party that are going to break out at any point”. Yusuf has already been a figure of frustration for many within Reform, culminating in his 24-hour resignation last year after he publicly criticised Sarah Pochin, then a newly elected MP.

Some in the party are concerned that Yusuf is part of a rightwards push, prompted by fears that Rupert Lowe’s Restore party was outflanking them. During the byelection campaign both parties seized on the murder of Henry Nowak by a 23-year-old Sikh man, and the knife attack in Belfast for which a 30-year-old Sudanese man has been arrested.

Earlier this month Farage called for “pure, cold rage” in response to the murder during a pre-recorded “emergency address”. After the Belfast attack, Yusuf said Reform would impose a “total ban” on visas for people from Sudan. “Prime minister Farage will reverse the invasion and ensure you no longer have to endure the horrors seen in Belfast today,” he added. Lowe also vowed to ban Sudanese people from entering the UK.

Last week Restore published its crowdfunded report into the grooming gang scandal, calling it “the rape of Britain”, and said Reform’s policy of life imprisonment for such offenders was “weak”. Lowe suggested that instead they “must be put to death”.

One senior party source said: “We were definitely spooked by Restore, and I don’t think it was our finest hour. Nigel can carry on the Yusufication of Reform, or he can rely on his instincts to keep Tommy Robinson well beyond where Reform stands, but he has got to make that decision.

“Reform shouldn’t panic – there is lots of evidence that we are still the main contender on the right, but [the] scale of tactical voting and persistence of it should be our focus, not Rupert.”

However, Restore appears to remain a preoccupation. In a social media video posted on Friday morning, Farage made a direct plea to those who switched to Restore, asking: “What do you want?” He added: “We are the challenger party to the left in this country and I would urge you to think again, I really, really would.”

Sunder Katwala, the director of thinktank British Future, said the pressure posed by Lowe was creating a fresh challenge for Reform. “Farage’s position for 25 years – that there is a place to the right he won’t go – is being contested to an extent that it has never been before,” he said.

“[Farage] used racialised language this month in the campaign, which leaves [him] at risk of being asked why he had that boundary in the first place. They still have the red line in one form, in that if you have been in the BNP you can’t be in [Reform], but [Restore] has certainly discombobulated Farage.”

Some within Reform also believe they were let down by the party’s choice of candidate, not least because of Kenyon’s social media history. He called abortion “cowardly murder”, made sexist jokes about high-profile women including TV presenter Carol Vorderman, and posted Covid vaccine hoaxes.

Oxford University professor Ben Ansell said: “Reform aren’t as battle-tested for opposition research as the main parties are… And there is a general question about whether Farage will be running in three years. Is his heart really in this? This is hard work and going to keep on being hard work – and without Farage, what are they?”

Farage has held just one press conference since news emerged of his undeclared £5m gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. Before the story broke he had been averaging more than one a week.

Certainly, without Farage there is a question as to whether Reform can maintain its attraction to donors such as Harborne and Ben Delo. Between them – and not including the undeclared £5m – the crypto billionaires are responsible for nearly two-thirds of the £29.9m raised by the party since July 2024. Without the two men’s donations, Reform’s fundraising would fall behind Labour (£25.1m) and the Tories (£21m).

“It is relative standing that matters,” John Curtice, the polling expert, said. “If one of the other parties can break out of the park, Reform’s prospects don’t look so good… I don’t think there is any prospect of [Lowe] replicating Nigel Farage’s success, but he is capable of doing just enough to make life more complicated than Farage would like it to be.”

Reform was approached for comment.

What now for the Tories?

Tory donors, already relaxed about the time that leader Kemi Badenoch is taking to regroup, are understood to have been buoyed by byelection results in Aberdeen South, which they won with a 14.7 percentage point swing against the SNP.

“Something is turning on the right,” said Ansell. “I think the Tories are sneaking back into contention now. I wouldn’t rule them out, particularly if we don’t have a general election until 2029… I do think there are reasons to believe Reform’s momentum has taken a hit in recent months. You really did see that [in Makerfield].”

That was echoed by Curtice. “In a nutshell, both the two old dogs in British politics have shown there is still some life in them,” he said. With Burnham adding 15-20 points to Labour’s baseline, and the Tories campaigning in their historical comfort zone of economic credibility, Reform’s chances may erode.

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