“Ok, but do you want to answer the question?”
Reform’s Zia Yusuf refused to answer a question from the Question Time host, Fiona Bruce, about spending at a Reform council five times.
An audience member asked whether people could expect “insurgent parties” such as Reform and the Greens to address potholes and deteriorating public services.
Yusuf claimed that “north of 70%” of council budgets are “mandated by central government” and funding for issues like potholes is not ringfenced.
The Reform politician said that though that money is allocated to fixing potholes “most of it never makes its way to fixing the road”.
Bruce said: “That seems to be the case Zia with one of your councils.”
The Question Time host said that according to a Freedom of Information request, pothole spending under Reform in North Warwickshire has dropped by 50%.
“Is that right?,” Bruce asked.
Yusuf did not answer the question, and instead said that councils should not be judged on spending, but the quality of their work.
Bruce countered this by asking: “Well hang on, people want to know, hang on! Potholes come up every week on Question Time. Is it true? Is the council spending 50% less on potholes?”.
Yusuf tried to dismiss Bruce’s question again, saying: “Fiona with respect..”.
She responded: “With respect, I’m asking you that question.”
The Reform spokesperson for Home Affairs then started talking about how you would not judge the success of a business on whether it spent “as much money as possible” and that businesses wouldn’t last very long if they did that.
Bruce asked Yusuf once again: “Is that right?”.
Yusuf continued to talk up Reform’s agenda, saying that a huge amount of money is wasted in the country and that Reform has championed “more efficient ways of utilising money that is allocated to potholes”.
“Ok, but do you want to answer the question?” Bruce asked.
In her fifth attempt at getting Yusuf to answer the question, Bruce said: “Zia I want to give it one more go. Has pothole spending in North Warwickshire under Reform dropped by more than half?”.
Yusuf refused to answer the question again, saying “I’m not across that precise bit of detail”.
However, he claimed that no party that controls councils in this country has been more successful at fixing potholes than Reform.
Yusuf was then questioned about the vetting process for Reform’s local election candidates.
Bruce gave the example of Caroline Panetta, a Reform candidate in Erith, Bexley, who called Islam “the religion of rape, incest and paedophilia”.
Bruce asked: “Is she still standing?”.
Yusuf said “She won’t be standing”, before starting to talk about something else.
Bruce interjected: “So she’s been suspended?”.
“She will not be standing,” Yusuf said.
Panetta is still listed as a Reform candidate in Erith.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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