Zia Yusuf, a self-described ‘British Muslim patriot’, leaves a celebration accused of fuelling Islamophobia after 11 months.
The Muslim chairman of the UK’s radical right-wing Reform UK occasion has stop after denouncing a name from inside occasion ranks to ban the burqa as “dumb”.
“I now not imagine working to get a Reform authorities elected is an efficient use of my time, and hereby resign the workplace,” Zia Yusuf introduced on X on Thursday, hours after hitting out at Reform UK lawmaker Sarah Pochin for asking Prime Minister Keir Starmer whether or not his authorities would think about banning the burqa.
Pochin received her seat in a by-election final month that noticed the anti-immigration occasion, a few of whose members have been accused of Islamophobia, make significant gains in a political panorama historically dominated by the governing Labour Social gathering and the opposition Conservatives.
The brand new lawmaker had urged Labour’s Starmer throughout her debut look at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday if he would think about the transfer “within the pursuits of public security”, in response to the BBC.
“I do suppose it’s dumb for a celebration to ask the PM if they might do one thing the occasion itself wouldn’t do,” Yusuf stated on X amid an ensuing flare-up over whether or not banning the burqa ought to be occasion coverage.
Yusuf, a former banker and self-described “proud British Muslim patriot”, grew to become Reform UK chairman after final 12 months’s normal election, having jumped ship from the Conservative Social gathering.
Reform UK, led by Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, received 4 parliamentary seats in a breakthrough outcome last year, occurring to realize a fifth parliamentary seat, its first mayoralty and numerous council seats in local elections final month.
It at the moment leads nationwide opinion polls, forward of the Labour Social gathering.
Farage stated on X that Yusuf was “an enormous consider our success on Could 1st and is an enormously proficient individual”.
Divisions within the occasion’s higher ranks have been made public earlier than.
In March, Reform referred one among its lawmakers, Rupert Lowe, to police over numerous allegations, together with threats of bodily violence in opposition to Yusuf.
Prosecutors later stated they might not carry costs in opposition to Lowe, who was suspended by the occasion.
