Former deputy leader of Reform UK brands party a 'circus' as Zia Yusuf announces return 48 hours after quitting

8 June 2025, 10:55

The former co-leader of Reform UK has branded the party a “circus” after Zia Yusuf announced he would return to his role 48 hours after quitting amid a row over banning the burqa.

Mr Yusuf had declared that his role within the party was no longer "a good use of my time", after leading Reform UK for just 11 months.

On Thursday, the 38-year-old businessman took to X to announce he would "hereby resign the office", with the dramatic U-turn coming after he declared it "dumb" for Reform MP Sarah Pochin to call on Sir Keir Starmer to ban the burqa.

But just 48 hours later, Mr Yusuf said his decision was a mistake and committed his future to the party.

Now, speaking to LBC’s Lewis Goodall, the party’s former co-leader Ben Habib has branded Reform UK a “circus” as he declared the party doesn’t have the foundations to succeed.

Read more: Zia Yusuf returns to Reform 48 hours after quitting party, admitting he was 'blindsided' by burqa ban comments

Nigel Farage is running a 'circus,' says former Reform ally

Mr Habib told LBC: “I think it smacks of a party that's frankly a bit of a circus, doesn’t it?”

He added Reform UK will never be able to professionalise while Nigel Farage has complete say in the party’s policy.

“The foundations of any organisation comes through its constitutional documents,” he said.

“In order to have a party that has the correct checks and balances, processes and ability to go forward, knowing what its MPs are going to ask in PMQs and knowing that any such questions asked are not going to offend the chairman, are all born out of the foundational documents of an organisation.

“You can't professionalise if you don't have foundations. As I think everyone listening pretty much will know that Reform is Farage, Farage is Reform. And so what Farage decides to do goes.

Zia Yusuf has returned to Reform, 48 hours after quitting over the 'burqa ban' row

“This is not really grown-up politics. You know, if they want to create a government, they've got to have a genuinely professional approach to the recruitment and retention of people within the party and hopefully good people.”

On the debate around banning the burqa itself, Mr Habib said: “So Reform UK, in my view, correctly challenges multiculturalism in the country.

“It has identified, in my view, correctly, that multiculturalism is very divisive. But having challenged that and having actually stood on a platform against it for many, many years, it is obliged, in my view, to have a view on the burqa, whether that's to ban it or to have an open discussion about it or indeed to say, well, it's up to women to decide how it is they wish to dress, but they ought to have had an established policy on the burqa.”

Taking to X to announce his return to the party, Mr Yusuf said he "cannot let people down" after receiving "lovely" messages of support.

Announcing that he only came into politics out of a "sense of duty", Yusuf vowed "to serve the country I love".

"The country that had been so kind to my parents and presented me with immense opportunity," he said on Saturday.

"Out of a sense of duty to do whatever I could to reverse decades of decline and make this a country one in which we could be excited for our children to grow up."

A Labour spokesperson said: "If Nigel Farage can't manage a handful of politicians, how on earth could he run a country? He has fallen out with everyone he has ever worked with. Reform are just not serious.

"The Reform chair has done a runner so that he doesn't have to front up Farage's £80 billion in unfunded cuts, which would spark a Liz Truss-style economic meltdown.

"Nigel Farage's plans would put up every single mortgage in the country and hammer family finances, while forcing them to buy private healthcare. Working people simply can't afford the risk of Reform UK."

The Liberal Democrats meanwhile suggested Mr Yusuf was leading Reform's plans to cut public spending - the so-called "UK Doge" - by example.

The cost-cutting plans, which have been rolled out in Kent County Council where Reform won control in May, are based on the Department of Government Efficiency in the US, which was led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper MP said: "By sacking himself, Zia Yusuf seems to be leading the 'UK Doge' by example. You have to admire his commitment to the cause.

"It's already clear Reform UK cannot deliver for the communities they are elected to stand up for. Instead, they have copied the Conservative playbook of fighting like rats in a sack."

On Monday, LBC spoke to Yusuf on Reform UK's plan to send in an Elon Musk-style Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) unit to look at "wasteful spending" in councils.

He said: "Our commitment to the British people and the people who voted for us was that we were going to bring very competent people in. And this is what our DOGE team are.

"They're extremely competent people. They are working as volunteers to come in and help resolve these issues."

He added: "It is a function of the two old parties having absolutely no appetite, frankly, to change the status quo."