Another Bad Day for Nigel

New Week, New Toxic dispute…

On a day when many MAGA types were glued to the stunningly acrimonious fall-out between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the US President’s biggest fanboy here in the UK was probably glad to see his bestie’s troubles take the limelight. 

After all, it siphoned off some of the attention that Nigel Farage’s own troubles had been garnering earlier in the day.  

It started early on Wednesday, when newly elected Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin used her first ever question in Parliament to ask if the Government would consider banning the burqa:

 “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?”

Keir Starmer replied that he was “not going to follow her down that line”, but it then emerged that Reform had not decided to follower her either: a Reform spokesperson then told  media that banning the burqa was “not party policy, but it needs a national debate, which is what the House is for”.

However, she got mixed levels of support from her fellow Reform MPs: Lee Anderson promptly gave his full backing to the idea, while Farage and deputy leader Richard Tice limited themselves to welcoming a debate on the topic: 

“Ban the burqa? Yes we should. No one should be allowed to hide their identity in public.”

Lee Anderson on Twitter/X

Shortly afterwards, Pochin appeared on GB News and acknowledged that a ban was “not  our party policy yet, we haven’t come to that decision yet”, but then went on an unpleasant tirade in which she appeared to struggle with the idea that Muslims might be British:

“If they want to wear it in their own homes or in a closed setting, that’s fine. But out on our streets that is absolutely NOT fine, it is NOT fine for people to be wearing them in our schools, if they’re teachers or even if they’re young teenagers – how intimidating for English children to be taught by a teacher in a burka”

Sarah Pochin MP, GB News

When interviewer Christopher Hope gently reminded her that students or teachers in the burqa are English too,  she responded “Not necessarily, we don’t know […] The point is this is OUR society, this is OUR culture – they have to fit in with US!”

More trouble was brewing online, however, as Reform’s critics on the right began to accuse party chairman Zia Yusuf of having been responsible for the statement denying that a burqa ban was Reform policy.

Responding to a typically unpleasant tweet from Katie Hopkins insinuating that he had was to blame, Yusuf came out on Twitter/X to deny any involvement but call it “dumb” for Pochin to have asked a question about a policy that had not been agreed with HQ

“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.”

That tweet – and the blowback that ensued from the racist rabble that makes up a large contingent of Twitter/X users – appears to have marked the end of Yusuf’s eleven months as chairman of Reform. 

At 5pm, he issued a curt and somewhat barbed statement saying that he no longer believed that “working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time”. 

While this current row might have been the final straw, it is likely that Yusuf’s resignation is a culmination of a much longer period of stress and online abuse, which began when he replaced the popular Ben Habib as chair and accelerated hugely since he played a central role in the acrimonious row over Rupert Lowe’s departure. 

Many of Lowe’s fans – some of whom left the party in protest at his departure – place blame for the row squarely on Yusuf’s head, after the party chair reported Lowe to police for having made death threats against him. The timing of the report – two months after the alleged threats were made and just one day after Lowe publicly criticised Farage and been suspended by the party – led to accusations that Yusuf had “stitched up” Lowe. 

Yusuf’s departure is unlikely to do anything to heal that particular rift – Farage said immediately that he would “rather eat razor blades” than welcome Lowe back into the party, and insisted that the campaign against Yusuf had been largely driven by “indian bots”. 

So yet more trouble in the chaotic world of Reform UK, a party that wants to convince you it is ready to govern your council and country.