I’m a big fan of Zia Yusuf. Outside Nigel Farage, the party’s new Home Affairs spokesman is comfortably the cleverest of Reform’s Gang of Four. A massive asset and a massive lightning conductor for Farage.
But for some on the Right, his prominence is a major problem simply because he’s a Muslim. His critics are so blinkered that they ignore his policies and attack him as though he had just landed at Dover.
In fact, I expect there will be a torrent of vileness aimed at him and me for this article. The critics don’t realise that the ideas Usuf is pushing through would have been impossible without his background.
And if your religion is to be the way you are judged, what are all the Christians among Conservative and Labour MPs who have done nothing about the flood of migrants over the last decade?
The reality is that if Yusuf is successful, he will have done more as a Muslim than all the other religions in Parliament put together.
Even the most cursory glance at his career makes it clear that any party would have been delighted to have him. He worked at Goldman Sachs, rising to executive director (you can’t even join them unless you’re the brightest of the bright) and then left to start his own tech-focused business.
He sold up and focused on politics. Farage is a good judge of horse flesh, and he quickly became Reform’s most important asset.
Now that he is effectively Home Secretary (after all, Labour’s Mahmood is all hot air), he’s able to flex his muscles. At last, he’s putting flesh on those bones.
It’s strong and welcome stuff. Here’s the highlights:
- There would be an ICE-style deportation agency which would have the capacity to detain 24,000 people at any one time and deport 288,000 annually using five flights a day.
- All face coverings in public, including the burka, would be banned.. He said it was ridiculous that in an era of mass CCTV people could opt out surveillance by wearing face coverings. Farage agreed.
- A ban on churches being converted into mosques. Usuf said Christianity was ‘’core to the history and DNA of the country.’’ A ‘’patriotic curriculum’’ would be introduced in schools with Christianity ‘’at its heart.’’
- Usuf pledged a radical crackdown on Islamic extremism by mandating police to search the homes of individuals after three referrals to Prevent.
- Reform to scrap indefinite leave to remain, replacing it with a renewable five-year work visa and dedicated spouse visa.
- Reform will impose a visa freeze on Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Syria if those countries refuse to accept the return of migrants with no legal right to remain in the UK
Reform's Muslim will do more to curb migration than all Christians in the Commons combined - Kelvin MacKenzie | Getty Images
The reality is that for the last thirty years, effectively since Blair and Brown, the number of migrants coming here has exploded. With Yusuf heading the policy, Reform will be the first party to promise to do anything about it.
And we are beginning to see the effect of mass migration on our politics. The south Manchester constituency of Gorton and Denton will be a by-election face-off on Thursday between the Greens ( supported by at least 30 per cent, and possibly 50 per cent Muslims in the area) and the white working class, who I’m certain will desert Labour and vote Reform because they feel somebody understands their concerns.
Of course, the critics, most of whom work for charities as they struggle to find work anywhere else, were quick to claim that his ‘’divisive and dangerous’’ proposals threaten to wreak terror and chaos in our communities.
That is rich. Have they been to Birmingham of late? Or Whitechapel. Or Dalston. All of whom have seen a dramatic change in their areas. And nobody voted for that change. Well, come 2029 (a long way away, I accept), there will be such a vote.
Frankly, I can’t wait.
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