07 Jun FARAGE SAYS HE HAD A ‘TEN MINUTE WARNING’ ZIA YUSUF WAS RESIGNING AS CHAIRMAN
Nigel Farage has said he believes Zia Yusuf resigned because he’d had enough of politics but said he hadn’t decided who would replace him as Reform UK Chairman.
Speaking on GB News, Nigel Farage said:
“I first met [Yusuf] about 12 years ago at a private event in London. A young entrepreneur, ambitious, wanted to make his way in the world. But I was very struck by his values. That ‘we came to this country; my parents came as immigrants. You’ve been good to us. We’re part of this.’
“[He was a] big supporter of Brexit, big believer in Brexit, which is what we first met basically as I was campaigning to leave the EU. He came back on the radar last year. He’s been hugely successful in business. He sold his business. He had time. He gave us some money towards the general election campaign.
“Shortly afterwards, I said, ‘Do you want to become party chairman?’ I said, it’s a tough, tough job. And he accepted. For 11 months, we’ve been pretty much inseparable. For 11 months, we’ve been working towards May 1st. And I said last week that we would not have achieved what we did on May 1st without his hard work, without his skill.
“And he’s brilliant when it comes to data. He’s brilliant when it comes to the technical side of things. He really is in a class of his own.
“And frankly, I’m sad that he’s going. I’m sad for the party because he leaves a gap. I’m sad for him, actually. I spoke to him yesterday morning and I felt ‘yeah he’s really had enough of all of this.’
“Then Sarah Pochin asked that question in the Commons. He then put a sort of slightly intemperate tweet out that I could tell reading that tweet. I just thought, ‘he’s not coming in tomorrow.’
“So he disagreed. He thought Sarah shouldn’t have asked a question about the burqa. I mean, the debate around that, you know, is it a main priority, etc.
“But look, I’m sad. I think public life has lost somebody very talented, and somebody who’s come from within the ethnic minorities and is intensely patriotic about this country.
“I suspect that he thought [the burqa] just wasn’t one of our priorities. We’ve got other things to do and things to talk about, the cost of living, prices, the net zero madness, the channel open borders for the population explosion, the NHS not working.
“And there is a debate about whether it’s worthwhile spending much time talking about this or not. I mean, to me, actually, it’s broader than the burqa. It’s the Antifa lot that was screaming at me on Monday, wearing face masks.
“So it’s right to have a debate about this. Zia didn’t like it, obviously, but no, I think before she said that, he pretty much, he’s had enough. And can I just tell you that it’s 100 hours a week, it’s seven days a week. It is totally unrelenting.
“On X in particular, is full of vile trolls, particularly the alt right types, who have been just outright horrific towards Zia right from the very start. And I think he’s just said to himself, you know what, there are other things I can do with my life.
“I’ve noticed over my career in politics, a lot of people have been very successful in business, particularly entrepreneurs, they come into politics, and they find it very, very frustrating.”
“The rift with Rupert Lowe was not anything to do with it. We all had a rift with Rupert Lowe. Rupert’s behaviour was unacceptable at so many levels so this wasn’t just Zia – all of us found him impossible. So, you know, that was that.
“When people have exceptional strengths in some areas of their life or other areas where perhaps they’re not quite so strong. I think, in terms of dealing with staff, etc, there was a bit of a Goldman Sachs type mentality. I mean, politics is different.
“And I think when you come from the background, he comes from, say, Goldman Sachs, where he worked, it is a really tough, brutal environment. Politics isn’t like that. Politics isn’t just about creating a financial bottom line, it’s about doing things that are thoughtful, creative and different.
“So were his interpersonal skills at the top of his list of attributes? No. But I always found with me, he was very polite, very objective in conversations that I had.
Look he and I worked together for 11 months, seven days ago, in a week, we barely had a disagreement. During that time, I got huge admiration for him, and I think he for me.
“Not everyone got on with him, but you know what, it’s called politics; not everyone does get on.
“I think that the persistent campaign against him on X, and much of it coming from Indian bots, has perhaps made some before members question him, question his motives. All of that’s completely unfair. But it would have added to his sense of, ‘I want a life!’
“He’s 38 he’s got money in the bank, a lot of other things he can do. He’s just had enough of this way of life. I can tell you, there are many mornings over the years when I’ve got up and thought to myself, why on earth have I put himself through this? It’s not easy.
“I spoke to him yesterday morning and he did seem very, very disengaged. I was given a 10 Minute Warning that it was going to come.
“There is a gap there, particularly around Doge. I was the one going around the county saying every county needs a Doge, and he was the guy actually trying to put it into action.
“He’s walking away from the whole political game, I suspect never to return. As I say, there are many other businessmen before him who’ve come into the politics, and just decided at the end we don’t want the aggro, they don’t need the abuse. So no, I think that’s that.
“I hope I’m wrong. But you know I’ve got to find some new people.”
In a message to Zia Yusuf, he said:
“Thank you for coming in, for being so loyal to me and for enabling me to travel around the country campaigning whilst you were there in London, getting the nuts and bolts in place and allowing us to achieve on May 1st the most astonishing victory.”
“It’s one person who’s had enough. He’s come in. He’s done a great job. He’s gone. Elon Musk is a very big businessman, really rather successful – the world’s richest man. He’s gone into politics, and you know what? He’s walked away as well. It’s a very, very common thing.
“This only happened a couple of hours ago, I did have my suspicions yesterday that that
he wanted to declutter some of his responsibilities, but he was decluttering them rather faster yesterday than I thought perhaps he might.
“I’ve got to give [his replacement] some good, hard thought. Listen, he’s done a great service for the party. Not everyone liked him. That’s life, that’s politics. I’m grateful to him. I’m going to think hard about how to replace him.
“I’d rather eat razor blades [than have Rupert Lowe back into Reform] after the way he’s behaved and the things he said about us.
“You can’t work with people who when they have the slightest disagreement with you on anything, go public the whole time. You can’t operate in politics with people like that. If you’re going to have disagreements sit down over a cup of tea in a room and talk about it. Those guys chose to do it all publicly.
“I don’t think it’s amicable from [Yusuf’s] perspective. He probably feels what an ungrateful, fruitful, nasty business politics is. You never get any thanks. You get shed loads of abuse. It consumes your whole life. It means you have no personal life whatsoever. You’ve got to be a very odd human being to want to do it.
“Doing it in a smaller party and having to build it from pretty much scratch organisationally is much harder than being in one of the two big parties.”
