Reform UK chair and donor was still member of Tories until last week

The chair of Reform UK, Zia Yusuf, was a member of the Conservatives until last week when party officials were approached by the Guardian.

- Eleni Courea

Richard Fuller, the Conservative party chair, emailed Yusuf to tell him his membership had been revoked last Friday, after the Guardian asked the party whether it was still active.

That means Yusuf had remained a paid-up Tory member despite announcing he had donated a sixfigure sum to Nigel Farage's party in June, and then being unveiled as the chair of Reform UK in July.

The Conservative party did not cancel his membership even after Yusuf embarked on a series of broadcast interviews attacking Rishi Sunak and the then government, and urging voters to make Farage prime minister.

Yusuf told GB News in June that the Conservatives were "so divided that I simply don't see how they can govern effectively".

Addressing a Reform UK rally in Birmingham in June, Yusuf accused the Tories of having "lost control of our borders" and having "no coherent immigration policy". Within two weeks he had been made chair of Reform UK, replacing Richard Tice.