Journalists end interview with Reform’s Zia Yusuf after he repeatedly refuses to answer questions about racist tweet

Reform’s Zia Yusuf got cut off in an interview after he repeatedly refused to answer questions about a “racist” tweet he posted earlier this month.

On Good Morning Britain (GMB) this morning, presenters pressed Yusuf on a tweet he posted about Labour’s candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, Sagal Abdi-Wali. 

On 2 September, Yusuf posted a tweet suggesting Abdi-Wali, who came to the UK as a child refugee, shouldn’t be able to become an MP because she was born in Somalia.

On 9 September, Abdi-Wali was confirmed as Labour’s by-election candidate.

He wrote: “The front runner being foisted on the people of Holborn by Labour to replace the former Prime Minister Keir Starmer in our Parliament was born in Somalia.

“Do you understand what’s happening?”.

GMB’s political editor, Ranvir Singh, said the tweet had been “roundly condemned as racist”, and gave Yusuf the opportunity to explain his remarks. 

Yusuf claimed the accusation of racism was “absurd on its face” and said it amounted to “shutting down legitimate concerns from British people by calling them names.. It’s just not going to work anymore.”

Singh put it to Yusuf that his colleague Nadhim Zahawi was born in Iraq, “Are you saying that he doesn’t have a right to run in politics? Because he has.”

Yusuf did not answer the question, and instead said: “Are you aware that we have more foreign nationals living in Britain than at any other point in our history? Are you aware that we have more people that were born abroad in this country than ever before? 

“And are you aware that we have more members of parliament from abroad than at any point in modern British history?”. 

Yusuf added: “It is not to say you can’t be a patriotic British person if you were born abroad. It’s not to say you can’t serve our country if you were born abroad.”

However, he said: “There are a lot of people deeply concerned when they see things […] a group of Pakistani heritage MPs getting together and writing a letter to lobby the Pakistani government about an airport in Mirpur.“

Singh pointed out that that wasn’t what Yusuf had tweeted. 

Presenter Kate Garraway pressed Yusuf, saying: “Could you explain your tweet, please, so that we all understand it?”.

Yusuf continued to talk about how British people were wondering “why is my MP lobbying for an airport in Pakistan?”.

He said they were “legitimate concerns” to be raised and that he wouldn’t be “bullied or tone policed and called names for raising the concerns of millions of hardworking British people”. 

Singh responded: “That isn’t what you said, that’s a deflection.”

Garraway gave Yusuf another opportunity to clarify what his post meant, but Yusuf tried to repeat the same point he had already made about there being more “foreign nationals” than ever before in the UK.

Singh then ended the interview while Yusuf was still talking, stating: “Zia Yusuf, you had your chance to respond to the tweet but you chose to deflect by talking about another issue. Thanks for joining us on the programme.”

The programme then cut to a full list of candidates in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. 

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward