GET ZIA | rivals target Yusuf

Zia Yusuf is the UK establishment’s most inconvenient man

Of all the problems that Reform UK presents to Britain’s political class, none is more troublesome than Zia Yusuf. He has been in their sights from the beginning, and the pattern only becomes clearer with hindsight.

Reform is the most serious threat to the established order in a generation. Career politicians of every stripe understand this. If they wish to remain on the parliamentary payroll, they must find a way to hobble the party. The preferred method has been reputational warfare: a steady drip of stories alleging racism and financial impropriety, carried by friendly outlets and amplified by those with a shared interest in the status quo. Both charges are thin to the point of absurdity. Those who level them know full well that Nigel Farage has done nothing wrong, yet they persist in presenting him as a figure of almost satanic menace.

The financial claims are secondary. The principal weapon remains the accusation of racism, that reliable standby of British political combat. Yet even this has lost much of its force in recent years, and the reason is Zia Yusuf. It is difficult to sustain the image of a party and its leader as the embodiment of white intolerance when that leader counts a man with a Muslim background and of Sri Lankan ethic heritage among his closest political colleagues. The obstruction was obvious. When earlier efforts to attach the Islamophobia label failed to stick, the campaign shifted. An ancient playground anecdote from more than fifty years ago was excavated, courtesy of a Liberal Democrat councillor who claimed to recall Farage being rude to a Jewish schoolboy. The story was worked hard for several months until it collapsed under the weight of its own implausibility.

So attention has returned to Yusuf himself. He remains the most effective obstacle to the racism charge, and therefore the most useful target. Readers will recall the rupture involving Rupert Lowe, the Conservative-linked figure appointed to the Public Accounts Committee. The condition Lowe placed on continued association was that Reform should dispense with Yusuf. It was a curious demand from a politician of ostensibly conventional instincts.

The pressure continues. The tactics grow more obvious by the week. Those watching the spectacle would do well to treat the latest wave of claims with the scepticism they deserve. Desperation has a distinctive scent, and it is now unmistakable.