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Zia Yusuf put Reform’s bigotry on full display on Question Time last night

When I logged in to work this morning, my editor asked me to write my first article on Zia Yusuf’s Question Time ‘Immigration Special’ performance last night.

Right, first things first, an article intro. Zia Yusuf is a member of far-right Reform UK, current serving as the head of policy and party chair. He previously served as the head of the Trump-copycat ‘Department of government efficiency’. Why is Zia here?

What Zia isn’t is ‘an MP’.

Of the five BBC panelists, Yusuf is the only one that has not been elected to office, and good Christ does it show — he’s a right odious little prick.

A quick Google search of his name brings up the description “British businessman”.

I wasn’t the only person wound-up at the presence of elected representatives of Labour, the Tories, the Lib Dems and the Greens, next to ‘some rich cunt’ from Reform UK.

I didn’t watch Question Time last night. So, the first thing I did was catch-up on the show. I figured I could skip through the parts where Yusuf wasn’t talking.

Unfortunately, Fiona Bruce made sure that there wasn’t much to skip:

Fortunately, all that talking gave Yusuf plenty of time to display what a horrible little man he is:

Yusuf genuinely smirked whilst Polanski described his Jewish family members fleeing pogroms in Europe — approx. 10:20. That’s the level that we’re working at here…it’s Reform UK after all.

Protecting taxpayers, is it?

At one point, Yusuf responded to a refugee from Iran in the audience — approx. 24:46.

He contrasted his parents, who came here legally, with the audience member who arrived by small boat. He stated that:

We will stick up for British citizens who pay their taxes.

This is a remarkable stance coming from a political party that recently…you guessed it…happened to forget to pay its taxes. Likewise, businessman Zia doesn’t exactly keep spotless record of the figures at his own company Velocity Black:

By 2021, Velocity Black was growing fast. That year, it was listed as the 18th fastest growing company in Europe in the Financial Times.

In fact, as BBC News has discovered, this was based on the wrong revenue figures being given to the statistical company compiling the list, meaning it appeared to have grown twice as fast as it actually had.

That company, Statista, said Yusuf had signed off the figures himself and had supplied gross revenue figures rather than the net revenue numbers they had asked for.

When the figures were corrected, the company fell to 32nd in the list.

As a side note, the Twitter racists were absolutely furious that two small-boat arrivals were permitted to ask questions. Because, you know, that might humanise them or something. That fits right alongside Yusuf’s performance yesterday, when he talked about the righteousness of calling immigrants an “invasion”.

Reform UK can tolerate racism, but draws the line at rudeness

A lot of the audience and panel members spoke about the value of immigration for the NHS and care sector. Yusuf stated:

There are so many British doctors and nurses struggling to get jobs. The B…the union for the doctors is on its knees pleading with the government to create more training places for homemade doctors.

This is a lie. There’s nowhere in the BMA’s statements on the lack of placements that it talks about ‘homemade’ doctors. Trying to paint the BMA — which Yusuf couldn’t even remember the fucking name of — as racist lowlifes like himself is a despicable disservice.

One question-asker inquired as to whether it was right that a care worker in a nursing home will be sent back to where they came from at 65. Asking if that’s what Reform was suggesting, Yusuf replied:

No, it’s not at all, and if you had paid attention to what we were announcing, you would not have that view.

Now, the British public can tolerate a great many things…outright bigotry, far-right policies… but they really don’t like it when you’re rude to nice older people in a debate. And my God did they boo Yusuf for that remark:

For what it’s worth, along with being a complete tool, Yusuf also failed to listen to the question. He started talking about Reform’s proposed Acute Skills Shortage visa, which the only applies to “jobs in crisis”:

Under the scheme, firms can hire one worker from abroad only if they train one at home.

The answer to ‘would Reform deport a care worker at the age of 65?’ is ‘yes’. It’s a simple answer.

‘Already concluded’

Getting booed clearly hurt poor Yusuf’s feelings, because from that point he seemed to decide that the audience were there to hate him. At the end of the show, he went on an angry little rant:

These arguments, nationally, have already concluded. 70% according to the latest YouGov poll say immigration is too high in this country. Immigration is the number one salient issue by which people vote, and the majority of people in this country support mass deportations despite this particular audience’s views. Those are the facts.

That got more boos, because Yusuf doesn’t seem to understand that politicians shouldn’t directly insult voters. Again, this tracks with the fact that he’s never actually been elected.

Deputy Lib Dem leader Daisy Cooper also pointed out that in 2017, not a single asylum seeker arrived on a boat. She blamed the current situation on the botched Brexit deal, and stated that:

Nigel Farage should be here tonight apologising to the British people.

This is worth bearing in mind. As several of his interlocutors try to point in response to Yusuf’s tirade at the end of the show, Reform UK thrives on division. Without immigrants to blame for the UK’s ills, the party is a sucking void of political nothings.

Daisy also pointed out that net migration came down last year by 69%. As we’ve seen, the furore about immigration has only increased. Along with it, Reform UK’s popularity has suddenly shot up.

They want us focused on a trumped-up ‘crisis’ of immigration because without that division, they have no hope in hell. And, clearly, that terrifies them — just look at Yusuf’s reaction to being challenged even slightly: mockery, derision, and absolutely no answers whatsoever.

Featured image via the Canary/Unsplash James Lee

By Alex/Rose Cocker

This post was originally published on Canary.