Reform party chairman Zia Yusuf quits, saying its no longer a good use of his time

Reform party chairman Zia Yusuf has resigned.

Amongst other responsibilities, his role was to “professionalise” the party – surely a thankless task – and to run Reform’s DOGE (the doesn’t-really-exist “department” of government efficiency, another idea Reform stole from Musk in the absence of having many of their own).

Why did he quit? I don’t think he’s spelled out the precise reason as such, saying only that:

I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and herby resign the office.

We agree. Working to get a Reform government elected is not a good use of anyone’s time.

One theory is that seeing MP Sarah Pochin waste her first question to the Prime Minister by asking him to ban the burqa was the final straw. He certainly called her action “dumb”, and resigned a few hours later.

It probably doesn’t help matters that he follows the Muslim faith, which can’t be easy in a party which attracts rather more than its fair share of Tommy Robinson supporters, anti-muslim-immigration zealots and other folk who if they met him wouldn’t like him based on nothing more than his skin-colour and religion.

Online streams of Reform events would often see comments filled with hateful, often racist rhetoric when Yusuf appeared on screen.