Burqa ban row should act as lesson for any minority thinking about flirting with Reform, writes Humza Yousaf
6 June 2025, 14:46
Zia Yusuf’s resignation as Chairman of Reform should not come as a surprise to anyone, least of all to Zia himself.
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His story is not one of betrayal but one of inevitability.
A Muslim, Person of Colour, and son of immigrant parents, who reportedly donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to Reform, Zia was held up as a poster-boy by a party eager to detoxify its image. But when the mask slipped - as it always does with the hard-right - he was swiftly and predictably cast aside.
There’s a lesson here. For every Person of Colour who thinks they can cosy up to the hard-right in pursuit of power, influence, or status: they will use you, and then they will discard you. No amount of money or loyalty will ever make you “one of them.”
Zia Yusuf served a purpose. Reform milked him for money, and used his entrepreneurial expertise to help professionalise the party, all of which aided them during the general and local elections.
Reform could point to him as evidence that they weren’t racist and certainly not Islamophobic. They used him to take potshots at other People of Colour, like me or Sayeeda Warsi, he gave them the cover they desperately needed and craved in order to be seen as a legitimate, mainstream political force.
When the party’s newest MP, Sarah Pochin decided to create party policy during PMQs and propose a burqa ban - a tired, lazy, dog-whistle aimed at the party’s base - Reform were faced with a choice. A choice between standing with their Muslim Chairman or throwing him under the bus to appease their hard-right supporters. It wasn’t even close. Zia was disposable. But Islamophobia? That’s non-negotiable.
The sad reality is that Islamaphobia is not a fringe view in the modern far-right, it’s a central part of their DNA. From France, the Netherlands, Germany and here in Britain, anti-Muslim rhetoric is the driving force of European far-right populist movements.
Nigel Farage has made a career of stoking up suspicion of Muslims. From calling Muslims a “fifth column in this country" to questioning whether British Muslims share “British values,” his views are not incidental to Reform, they are Reform.
The fact that Zia’s departure was gleefully celebrated by the likes of Tommy Robinson and Paul Golding, two figures whose very brand is violent, race-baiting Islamophobia, tells you everything you need to know about Reform’s core base.
Who knows maybe Zia Yusuf foolishly thought he could have changed things from the inside. Or perhaps he believed that money and status would insulate him from the party’s worst instincts. If so, he was as naïve as he was wrong. He was Reform’s useful idiot, and now that his utility has expired, they’ve moved on without so much as a thank you. In fact, many of his former colleagues are celebrating his departure.
Zia’s story should act as a lesson for any minority that is thinking about flirting with the far-right for short-term gain. Don’t. The far-right doesn’t do diversity, it does decoration. And when they do discard you, not only will you have helped them cause divisions within our society, but you will also have done irreparable damage to your own dignity and reputation in the process.
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Humza Yousaf is Former First Minister of Scotland and Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Pollok.
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