Yusuf claims Reform will deport every single illegal immigrant – a goal even Farage thinks is impossible and pointless

It hasn’t taken long for Zia Yusuf’s shock unresignation to see him conflict with the views of his party leader/owner. Good job for Farage that he’s such a megalomaniac that reputedly his new chairman – who isn’t Yusuf – was picked on the basis that he’d have less power.

Anyway, in his first interview since his return a few days ago he told Radio 4 that he would deport every single illegal immigrant from the UK.

I want to be crystal clear about what my position is, and Reform UK’s position is, which is we will deport everybody who is here in this country illegally, which is roughly about 1.2 million people.

However, this is a claim so unrealistic that that even Nigel Farage thought it’s impossible, despite his tendency to exaggerate and confabulate. Last year he told GB News – a channel that would have been extremely sympathetic to the idea – that deporting every illegal immigrant is “literally impossible to do”.

Asked by GB News if he supported removing all illegal immigrants, he said: “It’s impossible to do. Literally impossible to do.

“For us, at the moment, it’s a political impossibility.”

Asked if it was his ambition to be able to do it, Farage replied: “No. So it’s pointless even going there.

“It’s a political impossibility, we simply can’t do it.”

For what it’s worth, the 1.2 million figure is also likely an overestimate.

Union chief spells out why Reform are ‘no friends of workers’

Part of Reform’s current “appeal” is their pretence of being the only party that will fight for the rights of the everyday working person against their wicked establishment bosses. Despite being set up as a private company owned by an ex-finance-industry multi-millionaire, the party somehow likes to pretend it is there to stand up for the poor beleaguered working class man above all other.

The organisations who one might expect to have the most expertise in these kind of matters would be trade unions – maintaining and improving the conditions of employees in the workplace being basically their entire reason to exist. Like them or hate them, that’s their stated mission.

So, are the union staff universally overjoyed to see Reform join their efforts to support the working people against the many abusive employers out there?

No. They are not.

We can turn to last weekend’s speech by Gary Smith, chief of the GMB union, to see why – and why many of them think that Reform is actually one of the least worker-friendly parties out there.

Economically speaking, Reform exists to help the rich get richer, and if they have to trample over the few remaining rights of the average worker to do that then they will not hesitate to do so.

Here’s Gary Smith in action:

Let’s get one thing clear – Mr Farage and his ex-Tory soulmates are no friends of workers.

They’ve spent a political lifetime attacking trade unions and the rights we have all fought so hard for. Decent pay, better conditions, protections we cherish.

By the way, why is it always the posh, private schoolboys who want act like they’re working-class heroes.

Do they really think we can’t see the bankers, the chancers, the anti-union blowhards?

If Reform are so pro-worker, why did they just vote against protections against fire and rehire? Why did they vote against sick pay for all workers? Why did they vote against fair pay for carers? Why did they vote against trade union rights to access and organise in places like Amazon?

Now they are going to run town halls. And, the first thing they want to do is sack council workers.

It’s high time they were called out for their sneering, snooty attitude about so-called ‘gold-plated’ pensions. Go ask a local authority care worker, refuse collector, street cleaner, school support staff member if they think their meagre pension is gold-plated. Many can’t even afford to be in it.

Reform’s abuse and name-calling of low-paid public sector workers is an utter disgrace.
Of course, Mr Farage has also threatened the NHS. And, he is notoriously weak about Putin.

3,000 members of Reform quit the party last week

LBC reports that nearly 3,000 members of Reform quit the party last week.

That was the week that Sarah Pochin went rogue and started banging on about burqa bans in Parliament. Her party’s chairman called that “dumb” and quit. And then he un-quit two days later.

Reform say that timing is just a massive coincidence. It’s not that their members don’t enjoy the rabid chaos. They simply forgot to fill out their paperwork. Reform’s new chairman David Bull has apparently got a busy day ahead, saying:

Today I’m going to write a letter to all of the members to say please can you make sure your subscriptions are up to date.

Reform lose yet another councillor; the police get involved

It looks like Reform have lost yet another of their novice councillors. Having served less than two months Daniel Taylor has apparently been delisted as a Reform member on the Kent County Council website.

We don’t know why – but apparently it’s serious enough to involve the police.

…a response from Reform UK shared by BBC Kent political reporter Michael Keohan on X says: “Following a matter which is now with the police, the group whip has been withdrawn from Cllr Taylor with immediate effect.”

Former Plaid Cymru leader criticises Farage for praising Andrew Tate

A couple of weeks ago it was confirmed that Andrew Tate was to face several criminal charges, including for human trafficking and controlling prostitution in the UK.

Leanne Wood, who previously led the Plaid Cyrmru party in Wales, has spoken out to remind us of the praise and respect that Farage seemed to be giving to Tate in the past.

Last year:

Nigel Farage has been condemned for saying Andrew Tate is an “important voice for men”.

The Reform UK leader claimed the online influencer had raised awareness of “men becoming feminine” and stood up for their ability to “be a bloke”.

Leanne Wood believes that this reveals the misguided priorities of Farage and his colleagues, saying:

The far-right leader has praised misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who has today been charged with rape. He said Tate was an ‘important voice’ for young men.

If anyone had any doubts of the links between misogyny and the far-right, those doubts should now be dispelled.

They don’t really care about women or children. They only care about sex offenders who are not white, and they only use case examples when it suits their exclusionary and racist political agenda.

I hope the Tate case will now end the pretence that the far-right want to protect women and children. They don’t. It’s all opportunistic bull. I hope you haven’t fallen for it

Sarah Pochin shows off her far-right Two-Tier Kier mug

Fresh from her own party’s chairman referring to her out-of-the-blue bringing up Burqa bans in Parliament as “dumb”, Sarah Pochin is back appearing to try and offend as many people as possible, this time embracing far-right imagery.

She’s been photographed happily showing off a mug with a fake image that seems to depict Keir Starmer in a Burqa, labelling him “Two-Tier Keir”.

Sarah Pochin smiling and holding a Two-Tier Keir mug

“Two tier” refers to the far-right evidence-free allegation that politicians, the police, or whoever the person using the phrase doesn’t like gives vastly preferential treatment to whichever demographic the person doesn’t happen like. Almost always this is Muslims or people with darker skin. The allegation has been referred to as “racist gaslighting” and “complete nonsense”. If anything, the typical person using it gets the dynamics of policing exactly backwards.

This image was not of her own design. Per Hope not Hate:

The image on the mug has been shared widely in far right circles by extreme figures who use the image to suggest Labour is complicit in the islamification of Britain.

Ali Milani, who is the chair of the Labour Muslim Network, correctly identifies this dated-feeling “obsession” with offending Muslims as dangerous, saying:

Sarah Pochin and Reform UK’s continued obsession with Muslims in Britain is dangerous. From using her first question at PMQs to attack what some Muslim women choose to wear, to now being pictured with a vile Islamophobic mug on the campaign trail, we are seeing a clearer picture of what Reform really stands for.

They are not here to address the real concerns of the British people, but to indulge a divisive fixation with Muslims and migrants.

Zia Yusuf un-resigns from Reform just two days after he publicly quit

Chaos continues to reign within Reform HQ as their previous chairman, Zia Yusuf, who quit the party a couple of days ago whilst (correctly) saying that he no longer believed that “working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time”, is back in a Reform leadership role.

At least some party members apparently celebrated his departure, not least because he was apparently obnoxious to work with, to the degree that he proactively deterred people from donating to the cause. Which is, admittedly, the one worthy thing one can do in that party.

I suppose he must have had a restful Saturday. He blames his original resignation and accompanying tweet on being “a decision born of exhaustion” and he believes “more than ever” that Nigel Farage is “the man” to lead the country. Presumably his belief is strong enough to make the torrents of racial abuse he gets from supporters of his own party somewhere worth it.

However he doesn’t get to be chairman again. Instead he’s going back to the part of his role that was leading the so-called DOGE team.

The UK’s other political party are naturally criticizing this bizarre short-term U turn:

Labour described it as “humiliating hokey-cokey” and the Liberal Democrats called it a game of “musical chairman”.

Reform candidates break electoral law by failing to submit a return

Two Reform candidates who stood in Hull have broken the law by failing to submit their campaign spending return.

A failure to submit a return is a criminal offence and comes with the risk of unlimited fine.

After elections, candidates and their agents must complete a candidate spending return to their local council returning officer within 35 days of the result being declared. Even if no money is actually spent, the law requires the submission of a nil return

This seems particularly strange for a party that bangs on about public scrutiny so much. All talk, no action, once again.

The candidates involved were Neil Hunter and Julie Peck. Thankfully neither won the election, but that doesn’t make any difference to the legal requirement to submit the return. Julie Peck claims she was previously a police officer, making the law-breaking feel even more gregarious.

To be fair, Peck was only brought in at the last minute. It was her partner, Ian Broadbent who was supposed to stand. However, as Angus Young writes, he had to step down from candidacy some time before the election took place due to some particularly unsavoury social media posts. I’m sorry to feel compelled to reproduce them below.

According to a story in Mail on Sunday, they included one post on X in which he called on Russian president Vladimir Putin to ‘take out’ the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps. He also described Sunak as a ‘foreigner running the government’.

In another post, he said London was a ‘third world shithole’ because there were ‘no whites running the city’ and accused Mayor Sadiq Khan of being ‘busy building his Muslim army’

The posts are of course now deleted and denied, although he apparently missed the one telling the former Scottish minister Hamza Yousef to ‘fk off back home m fight for ur country.’

At least 21 Reform councillors skipped their first meeting

Not only are Reform councillors cancelling swathes of critical council meetings instead of getting on with the job, they are failing to turn up to the ones that did go ahead.

The Independent reports that at least 21 Reform councillors have missed their first meetings.

It doesn’t seem like we have the names of the individuals concerned – but we do know that 21% of Cornwall’s Reform councillors failed to turn up to their first meeting at County Hall and another 4 councillors were not present at Nottinghamshire’s first full council meeting.

Stunts like this induced Nottinghamshire councillor Johno Lee to tell them:

I look forward to sitting on the committees with you because I don’t think you have a clue

Frustration as Reform treasurer fails to collect donations promised by big donors – including himself

Apparently the high-ups in Reform are getting annoyed with the party’s treasurer, Nick Candy.

Despite the party presenting itself as the party for normal folk who become members and donate normal amounts of money, Candy has actually been spending time and money jetting around the world to beg various billionaires for money.

For a party that claims to be so full of patriotism and love for Britain, these of course include the most unpatriotic of the uber-wealthy – a set of non-doms who stash their money in tax havens rather than pay the British state what it’s owed.

Whilst he claims to be getting a lot of promises – so many that the party is concerned that the massive funding they perceived to have is putting off other ne’er-do-well billionaires – very few are actually following through and sending the supposedly-promised donation.

Candy travelled to the US late last year with Farage to meet Musk, and returned to announce that the technology billionaire was considering making a significant donation. That sum has so far failed to appear.

He also said he was working with about 20 individuals who would give £1mn each to Reform before the next general election, which must happen by 2029
.
An investor best known for the Knightsbridge development One Hyde Park, Candy has been travelling around the world trying to persuade very wealthy individuals — including non-doms in some of the main global tax havens — to part with at least £1mn to support Farage’s party.

The uber-rich who he is failing to collect from include…himself. He pledged to make a 7-figure donation some time ago. So far he’s actually stumped up a mere £313,000. If you can’t even persuade yourself to hand over the money you promised to then his boast to "raise more money than any other political party" doesn’t sound like it stands much of a chance of coming true, thankfully.

Says one senior Reform figure:

There is significant disquiet around the party generally that he has not only failed to deliver on the amount he pledged to give the party personally, but also he’s talked about these tens of millions of pounds of pledges from other donors and they don’t materialise. He has been all talk and no trousers.

It didn’t help that Candy sometimes worked with the former party chairman Zia Yusuf. One associate of Nigel Farage said that Yusuf "was a bit of a kn**".

Whatever that censorship conceals it doesn’t sound complimentary. In fact he was so obnoxious that his very presence apparently put donors off.

He just could not get on with people or work with people. But the much bigger problem was that donors did not want to hand over their money to the party after they spoke to him

said the afore-mentioned associate of Farage.

Another inside claimed that:

…many donors were still sitting on their hands and not won over by the Yusuf/Candy charm offensive. Although in Mr Yusuf’s case it was “more of a lack of charm and pretty offensive”, an insider claimed.