Zia Yusuf is already a laughing stock for his insistence on being billed as the ‘shadow home secretary’ despite not even being an MP – but it sounds like he might not be one any time soon either.
The Reform man let slip on Question Time last week that the fact he had never stood for election for his party wasn’t necessarily his choice – suggesting that, despite his seniority, he’d never persuaded Nigel Farage to allow him to run.
Mocked by Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake for insisting government was easy despite having never run for Parliament, Yusuf said: “So it’s interesting that you think that all of the country’s problems are down to whether I’ve stood in a by-election or not… what makes you think that I never put myself above the parapet and wanted to stand in a by-election? What makes you think that?
Suggested Reading
Does Robert Jenrick already have his eye on Reform’s top job?
“So anybody who wants to stand in a by-election automatically gets to do so? Maybe in the Conservative Party where it’s just cronyism and nothing else matters, but I think you’ve made a lot of very big assumptions.”
Asked by host Fiona Bruce is he had ever put his name forward to stand, Yusuf said: “Listen, we have an application process to stand in parliamentary by-elections, and all I’d say is coming after me for not being willing to stand in a parliamentary by-election is incorrect and hugely presumptuous.”
Which is odd, because the application process to be a Reform by-election candidate is a very simple one: Nigel Farage chooses if you get to be one or not. Reform has no internal democracy, and Farage keeps such decisions very much to himself, even personally choosing who led the regional lists in May’s elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd.
It’s the latest blow to Yusuf, many of whose colleagues would like to see the back of him. Despite their confected photo opportunities, he and Tory turncoat Robert Jenrick still despise each other, their simmering animosity bursting into the public in May when they had a spat about deporting foreign nationals living in social housing. Yusuf is also said to have a poor relationship with deputy leader Richard Tice.
And many at the top of the party are said to think Yusuf’s “freelancing” is a problem, claiming that his pledge to build migrant detention centres in Green Party-controlled constituencies and council areas was not party policy and had not been run by Farage in advance of its announcement.
The assumption among Reform’s top brass had long been that, rather than testing the charmless Yusuf’s ability to win over voters, he would be plonked in the Lords in the event of a Reform government and given a department to run from there. Now, Reform watchers wonder if he will be ditched entirely – after all, the £206,000 he has so far donated is a drop in the ocean now the party is funded by billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo.
Most popular
Pakistan’s solar miracle – how the hell did they do it?
The 13 people most to blame for Brexit
Alpine divorce and the dangers of falling for a bastard
A history of Brexit in 256 disasters
