Reform UK suspends board member amid row over Zia Yusuf’s behaviour

Reform UK has suspended a former ally of Nigel Farage after he publicly criticised Zia Yusuf’s behaviour.

Reform has confirmed that it has suspended Reform supporter and board member Tim Montgomerie after he accused Yusuf of behaving “like a child”.

Speaking on The Spectator’s Coffee House Shots podcast, Montgomerie also said Yusuf “did not talk to me” for three months after he discovered he had helped ex-Tory frontbencher Robert Jenrick defect to Reform.

“A lot of people are on not-speaking terms with Zia and it’s nearly always Zia who initiates it,” he said. “It needs to end. You cannot behave like a child in politics.”

Montgomerie, who founded blog site Conservative Home, also criticised the Reform home affairs spokesperson for calling former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace “a traitor to Britain” last week.

He said: “It was unprecedented for Farage to criticise him last week, but did he take down the tweet that Nigel criticised? No. He wouldn’t. He’s loyal to Nigel as he has to be if he wants to succeed him, but in terms of being able to really play as a team player…”

Yusuf called Wallace “a traitor” specifically for allowing thousands of Afghans who had served in the British army to seek refuge in the UK following a data breach that compromised their safety. 

At the time, Nigel Farage also said Yusuf’s language was “too strong”, adding: “I shall give him a ticking off”. 

Montgomerie also said that Yusuf had “consistently freelanced” on X, for example, on accepting Conservative candidates including Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick, who were “being wooed” to join Reform at the time.

“It was his way of trying to undermine that policy,” Montgomerie said.

On the show, he also said he thinks “Nigel [Farage] has fallen out of love with Zia”. This comes after a Reform source had told The Daily Mail that Farage had “fallen out of love” with “out of control” Yusuf, and that he might be sacked.

The suspension also comes after Montgomerie had previously criticised Farage’s handling of questions about the £5 million gift from Christopher Harborne.

Speaking to BBC Politics Live back in June, Montgomerie said that Farage “cannot hide away” from the issue of his £5 million gift and that he would need to come up with “better answers” to questions about it. 

Former Reform chair David Bull, who was replaced by Reform MP Lee Anderson in May, recently said Farage should “take a break” from politics.

A Labour source said: “Tim Montgomerie dared to say what we’re all thinking – Nigel Farage should have declared his secret £5 million gift. If Farage had nothing to hide, why is he being so defensive? What a snowflake.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward