Without Yusuf, Farage will find it even harder to increase Reform’s popularity
At Reform UK’s conference last September, Nigel Farage could not have been more clear: his party had to “model ourselves on the Liberal Democrats” and painstakingly build an election-winning machine.This was always a tough ask and with Zia Yusuf gone it becomes harder still.At the time of the speech in Birmingham, Yusuf had been Reform’s chair for slightly over two months, and Farage was at pains to praise the millionaire entrepreneur for having “already made a massive difference to our level of professionalisation”.While the catalyst for Yusuf’s sudden resignation appears to have been his disquiet over some Reform MPs pushing to ban the burqa, there had long been rumours of tensions as the businessman tried to get an organisational grip on the party.Rightwing populists and political mavericks seem to be falling out regularly at the moment.
On the same day Yusuf departed, Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s faltering bromance ignited into a stream of social media insults and threats.Farage’s various political parties have been similarly characterised by a chorus line of jettisoned ex-allies.So while Thursday’s drama was in some ways nothing new, its repercussions potentially go quite a lot further given Farage’s very clear ambition to finally take one of his political vehicles to a bigger stage.Much like Reform, Ukip and the Brexit party both enjoyed sweeping electoral successes, but these were largely based on particular issues of the day, a desire to kick the major parties and Farage’s own genius for communication.As such, the triumphs tended to be brief and the moment Farage stepped away things fell apart.
Yusuf’s job, as set out by Farage in his speech, was to build a network of volunteer-driven branches nationally, which over several election cycles would gradually build up a mass of councillors, creating enough door-knockers to, in the Lib Dem tradition, bombard voters with leaflets at every election.The idea was to build a party not just reliant on the charisma of one person.Last month’s local elections were a key first step as Reform took control of 10 councils across England, even if this was seemingly done in the main using paid-for literature, with Farage’s “people’s army” of volunteers reportedly still thin on the ground.But within weeks of this landmark have come two reverses.On the same day Yusuf quit, Nathaniel Fried, brought in to work alongside Yusuf in Reform’s Elon Musk-style “department of government efficiency” (Doge) unit, also announced he was leaving.
Just three days earlier, the unit had been unveiled with some fanfare on Reform’s social media, pictured at Kent council’s offices, with Yusuf saying potentially wasteful spending had already been uncovered.Alongside the then chair and Fried, the third “Doge” member pictured was Arron Banks, previously a major donor to Farage’s parties who had largely quit the political scene before standing as a Reform mayoralty candidate last month.Banks is now being talked about as a potential replacement for Yusuf, and while he is also a wealthy entrepreneur, his appointment could be viewed as a step backward, or at least into the past.A vocal and sometimes abrasive presence on X, Banks is a throwback to the less disciplined and more freewheeling Farage age, one of the self-described “bad boys of Brexit”.It is not as easy to imagine him knuckling down to a regime of branch organisation and candidate vetting.
Other rumours suggest Farage could play it more safe with the chair role, either handing it to Richard Tice, his deputy, or David Bull, the TV presenter who delights Reform conferences with his energetic warm-up routine.But whatever happens, Yusuf is a loss in another way.As Farage seeks to build Reform into a party whose support can be counted in the 30s of per cent rather than the 10s or even 20s, he has to make it palatable to a wider base – hence his vehement disavowal of the anti-Islam agitator Tommy Robinson and, to an extent, the departure of the party’s main culture warrior, the MP Rupert Lowe.Put bluntly, having a young man of Muslim heritage whose parents came to the UK as immigrants as the party chair could have been viewed as a sign that Reform was aiming itself beyond voters who enjoyed Lowe’s talk of mass deportations.The fact Yusuf quit after a row about burqas delivers a very different message.
Simone Biles slams ‘sore loser’ Riley Gaines over attacks on trans athlete
Seven-time Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles has publicly condemned former competitive swimmer Riley Gaines for her repeated attacks on transgender athletes, calling Gaines “sick” and a “sore loser” in a strongly worded social media post.The exchange erupted Friday night after Gaines mocked the Minnesota State High School League for turning off comments on a post celebrating Champlin Park High School’s girls’ softball team, which had just won the state championship. One of the team’s players is a transgender girl.“This championship was hijacked,” Gaines wrote on X, referring to the student-athlete as “a boy” and ridiculing the league for disabling comments “lol”.Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all time with 11 Olympic and 30 world championship medals, had seen enough
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Towards the final stretch of the big three’s unprecedented period of dominance, as it became clear Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic would vacate their thrones, the future of men’s tennis was clouded in uncertainty. Although there was a talented, competitive generation of players born in the 1990s waiting to take their place, the gulf in quality was significant. For a short time, there were opportunities for someone brave enough to take them.The past fortnight in Paris has again underlined how Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have emphatically shut the door on this prospect. As they prepare to face each other in a grand slam final for the first time, at Roland Garros on Sunday, it will mark the sixth consecutive grand slam that has been won by either Sinner, the world No 1, or the world No 2, Alcaraz
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The South Africa captain talks about street cricket in Langa, adapting to new schools after a scholarship and why playing at Lord’s means so much“There was always some sort of allegiance with Lord’s when we were growing up in Langa,” Temba Bavuma says of his childhood as a township boy living just outside Cape Town. Bavuma, the first black cricketer to captain South Africa, will lead his country against Australia in the World Test Championship final, which begins at Lord’s on Wednesday.In the quintessentially English surroundings of Arundel, the 5ft 3in Bavuma looks as if he has gone back to being a kid in the dusty townships. “In Langa we had a four-way street,” he says, his face crinkling with the memories. “On the right-hand side of the street the tar wasn’t done so nicely and we used to call it Karachi because the ball would bounce funny
‘It’s a seminal moment’: Queen’s gears up for return of women’s tennis after 52 years
Lawn Tennis Association believes revived Queen’s women’s event can be catalyst for brighter days aheadNot since 1973, when Edward Heath was the UK prime minister, Suzi Quatro topped the charts, and the first series of Are You Being Served? had just ended, has women’s professional tennis graced the prestigious Queen’s Club in London.But after 52 years it will return with a bang on Monday, with 11 of the world’s top 20 among those battling it out in a WTA 500 event for a prize fund of £1m, a week before the annual men’s event takes place. Those playing include the Wimbledon champions for 2024 and 2022 respectively, Barbora Krejcikova and Elena Rybakina, the Australian Open champion, Madison Keys, and Britain’s own US Open champion from 2021, Emma Raducanu.The tournament also comes as British women’s tennis is rising and spreading its wings. When the latest world rankings come out on Monday, there will be three players – Raducanu, Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal – in the WTA top 50 for the first time since 1986
Jannik Sinner sees off defiant Djokovic to set up dream final against Alcaraz
Regardless of the tricky surface beneath his feet, the crowd of 15,000 desperate for him to falter or the intimidating résumé of the adversary before him, Jannik Sinner keeps on going. The world No 1 continued to demonstrate his superiority over all challengers at Roland Garros as he closed out a supremely clutch performance against Novak Djokovic, the sixth seed, with a 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (3) win to reach the final of the French Open for the first time.Sinner has now won 20 straight matches at grand slam tournaments and on Sunday he will attempt to win his third straight major title. He is the fifth man this century to reach three consecutive grand slam finals, following the path of the four legendary players before him: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray. He has still not dropped a set in Paris this year
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