Yusuf's resignation isn't the only setback Reform will face

Reform leader Nigel Farage said he knew e something was wrong on Wednesday morning, when he spoke to Zia Yusuf, his party chair. I felt, He’s really had enough of all of this,” Farage told GB News. He did seem very, very disengaged.”

- JOHN RENTOUL

The Clacton MP was obviously trying to present Yusuf’s resignation – he had “10 minutes” warning of it – as the result of the pressure of a tough job and a social media campaign of “vile trolls”, rather than the strain of working with one N Farage.

But he had to admit that Yusuf didn’t like the question about banning the burqa that Sarah Pochin, the party’s newest MP, asked at Prime Minister’s Questions at noon on Wednesday – a question that was obviously Farage’s idea: “So he disagreed. He thought Sarah shouldn’t have asked a question about the burqa.”

Farage said: “There is a debate about whether it’s worthwhile spending much time talking about this or not.” Farage said it was “right to have a debate about this”, while “Zia didn’t like it, obviously, but no, before she said that, he pretty much [had] had enough. And can I just tell you that it’s 100 hours a week, it’s seven days a week. It is totally unrelenting.

“X in particular is full of vile trolls, particularly the alt-right types, who have been just outright horrific towards Zia right from the very start. And I think he’s just said to himself: ‘You know what, there are other things I can do with my life.’”