Reform UK civil war erupts as key party figure suspended
Senior Reform UK figure Tim Montgomerie has been suspended by the party after he repeatedly criticised it. On Monday, Mr Montgomerie unleashed a scathing attack on Zia Yusuf during a podcast interview. He claimed party leader Nigel Farage is getting sick of Reform’s Home Affairs spokesman, telling the Spectator that he acts like a child.
It follows an attack the previous week in which he condemned Mr Yusuf for calling a former Tory cabinet minister who served in the Army “a traitor to Britain”. In sign of tensions at the top of the party, Mr Montgomerie went public to say Mr Yusuf’s comments were “inappropriate and counter-productive”.
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Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf spent last week putting a few noses out of joint, not least by calling the former Conservative defence secretary, Sir Ben Wallace, a traitor, in a tweet Nigel Farage took the unusual step of criticising in public and which Yusuf declined to take down.
Tim…
The Express understands that Mr Montgomerie was suspended before his Spectator interview was broadcast.
It follows persistent public criticism of the party over many months.
Mr Montgomerie is the founder and former editor of the ConservativeHome website who briefly served as an adviser to Boris Johnson when he was prime minister.
He quit the Tories in December 2024 and joined Reform.
Speaking about Mr Yusuf, Mr Montgomerie told the Coffee House podcast: "There are a lot of people who are on not-speaking terms with Zia and it's nearly always Zia who initiates it.
"It needs to end. You cannot behave like a child in politics. You cannot have litmus tests, so many litmus tests where you stop talking to people."
However, he praised Mr Yusuf's behind-the-scenes work within Reform, following his 11-month spell as party chairman between 2024 and 2025.
"I genuinely pay tribute to Zia... he made the party organisation work,' he added. 'He has so many qualities, but he has to be a team player."
Last week, Mr Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesman, hit out at former defence secretary Ben Wallace after he criticised the party’s plan to fix the shortage of prison spaces by sending foreign criminals abroad.
Writing on X, he said: “Incredible that this moron was defence secretary.
“Our policy today is in direct response to your government’s failures.
“If their home countries won’t take back, their citizens that are languishing in our jails, we are renting spaces in countries like El Salvador to put them.
“They will serve their full jail terms there, and will be banned from ever coming back to Britain.
“They may well include some of the thousands of Afghans you imported, including those who had not been vetted properly and including Taliban fighters (!).
“You know, the ones you took a super injunction out to keep secret from the British people? That’s why I call you a traitor to Britain. You fit the dictionary definition.”
But Wallace hit back: “Oh look a lesson from a man who never put a uniform on...just worked at bank.
“A man who is literally making policy and facts up.”
Commenting on the spat on X, Montgomerie – a leading political commentator who quit the Tories to join Reform – said Yusuf’s language “isn’t acceptable”.
He said: “I don’t agree with Ben Wallace on this issue but Zia’s language and attitude towards any opponent is inappropriate and counter-productive.”
A Labour source said: "Tim Montgomerie dared to say what we're all thinking - Nigel Farage should have declared his secret £5 million gift. If Farage had nothing to hide, why is he being so defensive? What a snowflake."