Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf has refused to rule out a right-wing coalition amid the threat of a “divided right” following the launch of Rupert Lowe’s new political party Restore Britain.
Speaking to GB News, Reform UK’s Head of Policy admitted teaming up and doing deals is a “big if”, but they would have to do the “patriotic thing” in the worst-case scenario.
Assessing an increasingly “divided right”, Camilla Tominey told Mr Yusuf: “It’s worrying for the right to be this divided. You’ve got Rupert Lowe doing his thing, Reform doing your thing, the Conservatives doing their thing.
“We talked earlier about the prospect of some kind of Labour-Lib-Green coalition. If that beat Reform on its own, you’d have to start doing deals with the right, wouldn’t you?”
Mr Yusuf responded: “Well, that’s that’s a big if, right? And in that hypothetical scenario, you’d have to do it with the patriotic thing.
“Reform has lead north of 200 opinion polls in a row. The average of our lead in the polls consistently is nine to 10 points. We are on course for a general election…”
Pressing Mr Yusuf again, Camilla asked: “If the alternative was the coalition that I’ve just described, you just said something about patriotic duty – are you saying that if it came to it that the right would have to unite to see off a progressive alliance?”
Mr Yusuf replied: “Well, I think as soon as you’re in the territory of that conversation, frankly, this is why I came into politics.
Zia Yusuf has refused to rule out a coalition on the right
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GB NEWS
“I’d be extremely concerned about the way the country is going to end up because there’s nothing frankly right about the Tory party in terms of how they’ve governed. And by the way, as a result of the recent defections to Reform, I would argue the wets are now going to continue to dominate the Conservative Party.”
Hammering Mr Yusuf for a definitive answer, Camilla stated: “I’m going to hammer in on this – you’re not ruling out a future coalition if it prevents a progressive alliance taking control of this country – the Greens, the Libs and Labour.
“Are you and Nigel Farage and others going to stand by and let that happen because you don’t think you can do deals with the Tories or indeed Rupert Lowe if the time came?”
In response, Mr Yusuf said: “I think the focus for us is to ensure that we win an outright majority at the general election, and again, this isn’t just something I’m saying, Camilla, it’s why I came into politics. My position on this has been consistent.
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“I voted Tory historically, I was a member of the Conservative Party, I was excited when Boris Johnson was the Prime Minister initially and got Brexit done. But then what they ended up doing as a result of Boris, as a result of Priti Patel, was to govern in a manner that I would argue is actually to the left even of Keir Starmer.”
Camilla then suggested: “It sounds to me like you’re not ruling out a future pact.”
Quizzing Mr Yusuf on the future Reform UK Cabinet, the GB News host asked the party’s Head of Policy if the plans for “Robert Jenrick as Chancellor under a future Nigel Farage Government, Nadhim Zahawi running the Foreign Office, Richard Tice would with Business and Energy and Zia running the Home Office” are true.
He joked: “You’ll have to tune in to find out what Nigel announces. I will say this though, the fact that you are asking that question is evidence of the strength of the team that Nigel has around him.
Zia Yusuf told GB News it would be a ‘patriotic duty’ to form a coalition against the progressive left
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GB NEWS
“I think there are a number of exceptional people who Nigel’s going to be able to have in his cabinet. We’re still obviously sadly some way off a general election – Nigel announced this week that he would be beginning the process of announcing a shadow cabinet team.
“And I think that actually the team that he announces put up against the top three, four, five, whatever the number is, against any other party will look very good indeed.”
Teasing further announcements for more Reform UK members, Mr Yusuf concluded: “Again, there are several people I think Nigel could put in the role of Shadow Chancellor that I think would be both excellent in that role and excellent as Chancellors.
“And there are no shortage of of huge roles, by the way, that will still not have been announced. You won’t have to wait long, we’re not far off from those announcements.”