He said: “Zia regrets what he said and did the other day. It was a combination of 11 months hard work and exhaustion.”<\/p>\n
In a post on X, Yusuf said he had received a large number of messages urging him to reconsider leaving the party and explained why he quit two days ago.<\/p>\n
“After 11 months of working as a volunteer to build a political party from scratch, with barely a single day off, my tweet was a decision born of exhaustion,” he wrote. <\/p>\n
Yusuf said he came into politics “out of belief that Nigel Farage was the man” to lead the country, adding “I believe in these things more than ever”.<\/p>\n
Before his resignation, Yusuf had criticised Sarah Pochin, who won last month’s Runcorn and Helsby by-election for the party.<\/p>\n
She urged Sir Keir Starmer to ban the burka “in the interests of public safety” during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Yusuf said it was “dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn’t do”. A burka ban is not Reform party policy. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Farage told the BBC that Yusuf, who is a Muslim, “gets even more racial abuse on X than ever” when Islam is discussed. <\/p>\n
“In retrospect, he knows a lot of it is bots trying to damage Reform. It is not Reform members,” he added. <\/p>\n
“Yes, some of it is the alt-right, but there’s a lot of bots. He regrets it and wants to continue working for us.”<\/p>\n
Speaking to BBC News on Saturday evening, Farage said Yusuf would have a “very clearly defined role”, and that his previous workload was “way too much for anybody”.<\/p>\n
Asked whether Yusuf was burnt out, the Reform UK leader said that description would be accurate, adding: “I would credit much of the success we enjoyed on 1 May and since to his considerable efforts.<\/p>\n
“Any discussion around Islam, terrorism, in this case the burka and he can’t win.<\/p>\n
“He is subjected to pretty vile abuse and… we’re all human. He overreacted to it and he admits himself it was a mistake.”<\/p>\n
Other parties have criticised Reform over Yusuf’s reappointment. Labour described it as “humiliating hokey-cokey” and the Liberal Democrats called it a game of “musical chairman”.<\/p>\n
But Farage rejected suggestions the episode showed the party was in disarray, saying “we will emerge from this much stronger”. <\/p>\n
Yusuf – a former banker who sold his tech company for more than \u00a3200m, and was previously a member of the Conservative Party – became Reform’s chairman shortly after last year’s general election and was seen as central to the party’s operation.<\/p>\n
The party’s so-called Doge UK team, which was set up to identify spending cuts in councils the party now controls, was formally launched this week.<\/p>\n
Further appointments by the party are also expected soon in what it described as an “expanded management structure”.<\/p>\n
A new party chairman is expected to be appointed next week and a deputy chairman will be hired too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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