Zia Yusuf resigns as Reform UK chairman after internal row over burka comments

Reform UK shake-up

Zia Yusuf resigned as chairman of Reform UK on 2025-06-05, saying he no longer believed working to get a Reform government elected was a good use of his time. The BBC report in the evidence packet says Yusuf made the announcement on social media and did not give a detailed explanation beyond that statement.

The timing links his resignation to an internal row over comments about the burka. According to the packet, Yusuf had called it “dumb” for Reform’s newest MP, Sarah Pochin, to ask Sir Keir Starmer whether he would ban the burka during Prime Minister’s Questions. That dispute appears to have sharpened tensions inside the party just as it was trying to present itself as a more professional force.

Nigel Farage responded by saying he was genuinely sorry to lose Yusuf and described him as enormously talented. Farage also said Yusuf had played a major part in Reform’s recent electoral gains, including a by-election win, two mayoral victories and hundreds of new councillors. At the same time, Farage acknowledged that not everyone in the party had got on with him.

The resignation matters because Yusuf had been one of the party’s most visible organizational figures. The packet says he was tasked with professionalising the party, wooing donors and expanding its activist base. He also helped drive Reform’s “Doge” teams, intended to cut wasteful spending in the councils the party now controls. His departure therefore affects not just internal politics, but the party’s operating model.

The report adds that Nathaniel Fried, who had been brought in to lead the Doge unit, also said he was stepping down. That suggests Yusuf’s resignation had an immediate knock-on effect inside the party’s newly promoted administrative arm, not only in its public-facing leadership.

Yusuf’s political trajectory gives the move added weight. The BBC says he was a former Conservative Party member, a former banker and a tech entrepreneur who had donated heavily to Reform during the election campaign. He had become closely associated with the party’s effort to scale up from insurgent movement to credible organization. His exit therefore raises questions about how stable that project is.

The wider political reaction was predictably sharp. Liberal Democrat and Labour figures used the resignation to cast doubt on Reform’s competence, while Conservatives mocked the party’s internal cohesion. Those comments are part of the political fallout, but the core story remains Yusuf’s own decision to step down and his assertion that the work was no longer worthwhile.

On the evidence supplied, the story is not about a policy reversal or a public scandal with a formal inquiry. It is about a senior organizer leaving abruptly after an ideological and interpersonal clash inside a party still trying to define itself. For Reform UK, the question now is whether Yusuf’s exit is a one-off or a sign that the party’s professionalizing project has hit an early wall.