Nigel Farage's fans want him to move into Downing Street (Image: Getty)
Reform UK is now within touching distance of the share of the vote needed for Nigel Farage to become Prime Minister, one of his top strategist argues. Millionaire entrepreneur Zia Yusuf claims Reform UK could win a narrow majority with 31% of the vote – and the Politico’s poll of polls now has the party in first place on 27%.
If the party can get “north of 35%” he says it could win between 350 and 400 of the 650 seats in Westminster. In the summer election Sir Keir Starmer’s party won 412 constituencies with 34% of the vote.
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He is certain the Labour Government will not succeed in stopping migrants coming to the UK on small boats ahead of the next election.
Zia says: “Our view is it’s actually a very quick and simple problem to solve if you have the political will. The necessary preconditions are you have to leave the European Convention of Human Rights – Labour are never going to do that.
“You have to announce that nobody who comes here illegally will ever be allowed the right to remain. You have to deport people who come here illegally, so you take away the incentive.
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“And you obviously stop giving people free accommodation at the taxpayers’ expense. Labour are not going to stop any of those things.”
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Zia Yusuf in Reform UK's new headquarters (Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)
This 38 year-old self-made millionaire talks with an entrepreneur’s energy of how Britain can be “turned around” so it is “one of the greatest countries in the world again”.
His parents came to the UK from Sri Lanka in the 1980s and found jobs in the NHS, his father as a paediatrician and his mother as a nurse. Born in the North Lanarkshire town of Bellshill, Zia won a place at the London School of Economics and worked for Goldman Sachs before making a fortune by founding luxury concierge service Velocity Black.
This is an immigration success story – and he now wants to rescue the country he loves from decline at a time when he says the economy is “circling the drain”.
When Mr Farage made his shock return to full-time politics ahead of the summer election Zia says he saw a “small window of opportunity for something very special to happen”.
Speaking in Reform UK’s new base in Millbank Tower – the same skyscraper overlooking the Thames where Alastair Campbell plotted New Labour’s 1997 election triumph – he explains why he took on the challenge of chairing the start-up party.
“The reason why I do this,” he says, “and I do it as a volunteer and I do it with all my time – is because this country has been incredibly kind to me, to my family.”
A key challenge is convincing the nation Reform “could actually win”. Zia claims the country is disgusted with the “two old parties”. He says voters are “getting soaked in tax” but suffering “worse and worse public services”
He sees Labour’s recent attacks on Reform as proof Sir Keir Starmer regards Reform as the “real Opposition”.
“You can see the fear in his eyes,” he says. “He’s terrified, understandably, because Reform is shining a very bright disinfecting light on this wretched Government and we’re not going to stop; we’re going to keep doing it.”
Reform now boasts more than 218,000 members and Zia says the party gatherings have the “most positive, enthusiastic, uplifting atmosphere you could possibly hope for – more akin to a rock concert, actually, than a political rally”.
Reform will face far greater scrutiny if it continues to top the polls. A key challenge is keeping bad apples out of its ranks.
“People try to infiltrate this party all the time, clearly,” he admits.
The May local elections are looming and he says so many people from other parties want to join Reform it has set up a “dedicated defections team”. But the party is not on the hunt for floor-crossers.
“We’re very precious about the culture of the party,” he says. “We know what we believe in and what we stand for in Reform.
“If people who share our values want to come and join us in the right spirit, with the right expectations, with the right motivations, cool, that’s great.”
Mr Farage is well-known for his friendship with President Trump – one of the most divisive figures in modern politics. Zia does not anticipate this special relationship proving an albatross for Reform.
Insisting “the opposite” is true, he says: “I think having good relationships with incredibly powerful world leaders is an advantage for the United Kingdom. Nigel has been really clear he wants to stand up for the British people and Trump has always been talking about ‘America first’.
“Well, it’s time we talked about putting the interests of the British people at the heart of every policy decision, whether that’s international relations or domestic affairs.”
Zia has described himself as a “British Muslim patriot” and he insists the movement he is working to build is open to everyone who shares its values.
“We’ve just got to be really clear with the British people what we stand for,” he says. “We stand for family, we stand for community, we stand for country.
“If you believe in those things it doesn’t matter what your background is, it doesn’t matter what your story is, you are welcome here.”
Today, defence ministers from across Europe will gather in London to discuss the Ukraine crisis. Zia is quick to stamp on any suggestion Reform is weak on Russia and says he wants Britain restored as a “serious military power”.
“Nigel has been extremely clear Vladimir Putin is an evil dictator who must be stopped,” he says. “The sad truth of it is the military in this country has been catastrophically under-invested in for decades now.”
A revival in Britain’s global clout – both economically and military, he argues – requires slashing the high cost of energy.
“In order to fund our military we need a fast-growing economy,” he says. “You cannot have a fast-growing economy with Ed Miliband’s insane net zero policies.”
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Instead, he wants Britain to lead the world with the roll-out of small nuclear reactors.
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Describing these as a “godsend” which will lead to lower bills, more jobs and clean air, he says: “I think the energy policy of this country – the objective should be to promote the flourishing of the British people. That’s the only thing we should care about.”
Today, Britain languishes far behind the likes of Australia, the United States and Ireland in world rankings when it comes to GDP per capita. Zia wants to see the UK in the top three with an economy “growing at 4-5% every year” and argues the nation could thrive if it “didn’t have leaders who actively harm the British people”.
The coming years will be a tough audition process for Reform as Zia and his comrades labour to win the trust of the British people. If they are granted power – in what would be one of the biggest political upsets in modern history – then the real test begins.