Move comes hours after Zia Yusuf, the party’s efficiency tsar, had criticised former home secretary
Suella Braverman’s husband has quit Reform UK six months after joining.
Rael Braverman issued a short statement on X, saying: “I have left Reform effective immediately.”
It came hours after Zia Yusuf, the Reform efficiency tsar, had criticised Mrs Braverman, the former home secretary, on the same platform.
Suella Braverman’s husband quits Reform after six months, telegraph.co.uk
Tag: Zia Yusuf
Zia Yusuf announces return to Reform UK two days after quitting as chair
Zia Yusuf, who resigned as Reform UK chairman on Thursday, is to return to work for the party in a new role.
Yusuf will lead what the party calls its “Doge team” – which is modelled on the Department of Government Efficiency set up by US President Donald Trump.
Earlier this week, Yusuf quit the party, saying working to get it elected was no longer “a good use of my time”, without expanding further.
Zia Yusuf announces return to Reform UK two days after quitting as chair, BBC
Why Zia Yusuf’s resignation matters for Reform UK
The resignation of Zia Yusuf as Reform UK’s chairman matters because he was a central character in the stand out trend in British politics since the general election – the rise and rise of Nigel Farage’s party.
After 11 months in the role, Yusuf said on Thursday that working to get the party elected was no longer “a good use of my time”, without expanding further.
Farage described Yusuf as a huge factor in Reform’s success in last month’s elections, but added that he believed he had “had enough” of politics.
It comes after Yusuf said it was “dumb” for Reform’s newest MP to call for a ban for the burka – a veil worn by some Muslim women that covers the face and body.
Why Zia Yusuf’s resignation matters for Reform UK, Chris Mason, Political editor, BBC
Question about a ban on burkas from Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin “dumb”.
The unelected chair of the party stood down from his role in the party, following a row in which he called a question from a Reform MP about banning burkas “dumb”.
Zia Yusuf: Chairman of Reform UK resigns, Sky News
Zia Yusuf resigns as Reform UK chairman
Zia Yusuf has resigned as the chairman of Reform UK, saying working to get the party elected was no longer “a good use of my time”.
Zia Yusuf resigns as Reform UK chairman, BBC
Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf says role is ‘no longer good use of my time’
Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf resigns from party
Senior figure in populist movement says role is ‘no longer good use of my time’
Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf has resigned from Nigel Farage’s populist party after criticising comments by one of its MPs about burkas, saying that he no longer believes the role is a “good use of my time”.
Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf resigns from party, ft.com
No time frame for Reform Doge review in Kent
Reform UK have warned their Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) unit “will take as long as it takes” to provide recommendations.
On Monday the Doge team arrived at Kent County Council (KCC) in Maidstone for their first meeting.
Party chairman Zia Yusuf met leader Linden Kemkaran along with senior staff, accompanied by millionaire party backer Arron Banks and Nathaniel Fried, a tech entrepreneur said to be leading the Doge unit.
The party plans to use artificial intelligence, advanced data analysis tools and forensic auditing techniques to “identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions”.
No time frame for Reform Doge review in Kent, BBC
Does reform not know how councils work that it threatens our privacy?
Kent County Councillor, Tim Prater of the Liberal Democrats, has roundly condemned Reform’s latest attempt to emulate Donald Trump.
In a letter to Kent County Council (KCC) signed by Linden Kemkaran (KCC leader for Reform), Nigel Farage, and Zia Yusuf, Reform have demanded access to all KCC data (even sensitive information about residents) for a group of unelected persons that Reform has chosen not to let the public know about.
Cllr Prater called it an “attack on Kent by Reform UK national leadership”.
This embarrassing, threatening and totally misjudged letter to Kent County Council tonight is an attack on Kent by Reform UK national leadership, countersigned by their new Kent leader who clearly doesn’t have a clue.
Anyone with the first understanding of how local Government has worked for the last 30 years knows the information they request is almost all public anyway. I suggest their highly expert DOGE team try “googling a bit”.
The rest is either subject to the same FOI constraints as apply to the public or other Councillors. To suggest there is top secret information here is nonsense on shifts, brought to you by people who have no understanding of how any public organisation in this country works. Mainly because they have never worked within local government in this country.
The irony that they have not released the “appended” list of “DOGE” representatives who should be given access to any data they imagine is interesting is not lost on us. They can ask for information on millions of Kent residents, thousands of Kent employees, but you won’t even tell us who they are?
The Lib Dems stand with Kent residents, and Kent County Council staff.
There is a process. That process includes the Council meetings your administration have cancelled at KCC over the next 3 weeks. They can ask for information in a public and democratically accountable way. You might not understand the process, but that’s your fault, not theirs.
DOGE in the USA just fell apart, having failed to find much of interest or actual saving, making a highly embarrassing series of blunders, some life threatening, and its leader Musk slamming the most recent Government bill and then quitting to spend more time with his failing business. To visit that pain on Kent is to hold us in contempt. We say no.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Tim Prater, via Facebook
Reform councils pledge to scrap LTNs that don’t exist
All 10 council areas controlled by rightwing party tell the Guardian they have no low-traffic neighbourhoods
Reform UK’s pledge to remove all low-traffic neighbourhoods from the council areas it controls looks to be achieved in record time after the 10 local authorities said they do not actually have any in place.
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s chair, said last week there would be a “large-scale reversal” of existing LTNs in the 10 areas across England where the party won control of the councils in local elections on 1 May.
“We view these schemes with the same suspicion as mass immigration and net zero,” Yusuf told the Telegraph, adding: “You can expect, if you live in a Reform council, for there to be a much higher bar for any proposals for LTNs and for the large-scale reversal of these existing LTNs.”
The Guardian contacted the councils now run by Reform – Derbyshire, Doncaster, Durham, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, North Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and West Northamptonshire – and they all said they had no such schemes.
Reform councils pledge to scrap LTNs – despite there being none in their areas, Tthe Guardian
Row breaks out over Reform banning Ukraine flags from flying above town halls
Reform UK will only allow the union jack, St George’s flag and county flags on council buildings
Reform UK will ban councils from flying Ukraine’s flag in support of the war-torn country, allowing only the union, county and St George’s flags on council buildings.
Councils across the country have flown the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
“No other flags will be permitted to be flown on its flagpoles, balconies, reception desks or council chamber walls,” chairman Zia Yusuf said.
As well as banning the Ukraine flag, Reform’s plan would prevent councils from displaying pride flags.
Row breaks out over Reform banning Ukraine flags from flying above town halls, Independent
Reform MP Rupert Lowe hits back at party leadership after losing whip
MP accused of threatening party chair says dealing with leadership is like smashing his head against a brick wall
Rupert Lowe has compared dealing with the Reform party leadership to smashing his head against a brick wall amid a public war of words that has revealed deep tensions at the heart of the rightwing party.
Lowe posted a statement on X asking the party leader, Nigel Farage, to have dinner with him less than 24 hours after Lowe lost the Reform whip, having been accused of threatening the party chair, Zia Yusuf.
The party reported the Great Yarmouth MP to the police, and Scotland Yard said a complaint of “verbal threats” made on Thursday about an alleged incident last December was being assessed by officers.
In a post on Saturday morning, Lowe said: “I have been betrayed more times than I care to remember, but never by people I would have called friends. It’s not a very pleasant feeling, to be entirely honest …
Reform MP Rupert Lowe hits back at party leadership after losing whip, The Guardian