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Joshua Nevett
Political reporter
Boris Johnson will go down as “one of the most damaging prime minsters”, says Reform UK chairman
History will choose Boris Johnson as one of the vital damaging prime ministers in British historical past, Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf has stated.
Yusuf informed the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast Johnson wouldn’t be welcome to affix Reform UK.
The Reform UK chairman criticised Johnson’s report on the Covid pandemic, immigration and public spending when he was prime minister between 2019 and 2022.
Yusuf stated there was “nothing Conservative” about Johnson and branded the Tories an “extremely left-wing party” in authorities.
Johnson declined to touch upon the criticisms.
The social gathering chairman spoke to the BBC’s Nick Robinson days after Reform UK topped a YouGov opinion ballot for the primary time, edging in entrance of Labour on 24% and the Tories on 21%.
The rebranded Brexit Party got here third in final 12 months’s normal election, with 14% of the vote, however solely gained 5 MPs, together with social gathering chief Nigel Farage.
Yusuf stated if there was a normal election tomorrow, the polling suggests Reform UK would win between 140 to 200 seats within the House for Commons.
He claimed Reform UK would win as much as 400 seats on the subsequent normal election, though there isn’t any polling to again that up.
At a brand new convention this week, Yusuf stated Reform UK had nearly 200,000 members, which is much increased than the quantity declared by the Conservative Party.
The BBC has been informed Boris Johnson had lunch with Reform UK’s predominant fundraiser Nick Candy, who can be an outdated buddy, in Mayfair in late January.
But Yusuf informed Nick Robinson he wouldn’t need the previous PM to affix Reform UK.
“History will judge Boris Johnson as one of the most damaging prime ministers in this country’s history,” he stated.
The enhance in internet migration throughout Johnson’s premiership was “a total betrayal of everybody who voted for Brexit, ” he added.
“He took public spending close to Soviet Union spending.
“So there was nothing Conservative about him.”
By contrast, Yusuf heaped praise on former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and said she would be welcome in Reform UK.
He said he had had several meetings with Braverman, whom he said had been “excommunicated” and made a “pariah” by the Conservatives, despite what he said were her far-sighted views on immigration.
A former banker who sold his tech start-up company for more than £200m, Yusuf described himself as a “proud British Muslim patriot”, adding that his faith was important to him and he observed Ramadan.
He became Reform UK’s chairman shortly after last year’s general election, after previously being a member of the Conservative Party.
He revealed that he had donated £200,000 to the party during the campaign.
As party chairman, he was given the job of professionalising the party, wooing donors and increasing Reform UK’s activist base.
He told Nick Robinson Reform UK only had 24 employees and “individuals do not fairly respect what has been achieved in such a short while”.
“So a lot of what we do is about laying the foundations for generations to return,” he added.
Kemi Badenoch denied plans to make it harder for migrants to gain British citizenship – which was her first major polcy annoucement as Tory leader – was a response to the rise of Reform UK.
She dismissed its surge in the polls, saying she could remember when another insurgent party, the SDP, was “at 50% within the polls” in the 1980s, and insisted her party was concentrating on “doing the considering” on policies that would improve lives.
Labour is also increasingly turning its fire on Reform UK, with Sir Keir Starmer attacking Farage’s stance on NHS funding at this week’s prime minister’s questions.
You can hearken to the Political Thinking with Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday at 17:30 GMT or on BBC Sounds.
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