Nigel Farage will be the next prime minister with Reform UK on course to win the next election, according to the party’s chairman.
Zia Yusuf said he had ‘no doubt’ his party would go from five to more than 300 MPs in the next five years – insisting the Tories are ‘done as a political force’.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, the multimillionaire businessman who has chaired the right-wing party since July said he was ‘very confident’ of winning the next election.
Support for Reform has been surging in recent months, with the party now polling around 22per cent. One voter intention poll last month put the party ahead of Labour.
Reform’s membership is also growing post-election, and more than 150,000 people are now said to have signed up. The party has also been boosted by a number of high-profile defections.
But with just five MPs, Mr Yusuf acknowledged they have ‘a lot of work to do’ before Mr Farage walks through the door to No10.
However, he said his confidence is ‘based on the fact that I see no way back for the Tory party’ – which he likened to a church where ‘half the people are of a different religion’.
‘There is no way back with the Tories,’ Mr Yusuf told the Mail. ‘They are done as a political force.’
He also described Labour as a party in ‘self-destruct’ mode, with a Cabinet full of ‘student politicians who have no idea how the world works’.
‘I think we’ll continue to win support, as we are, from both Labour and the Conservative Party for different reasons.
‘But we don’t need to win all of their support to win the next general election – that’s the beauty of the first past the post system, you can become the party of government with a decisive mandate, with about a third of the vote. We’re well on our way.’
He added: ‘All that matters is we go from 14per cent in the general election last time to 35per cent next time. We’re already at 22per cent and we’ve done that in six months.’
The Reform chairman claimed the party was not actively reaching out to people to defect, and insisted it would get to power by building support from the grassroots.
‘We’re not going to win the next election based on this person defecting or that person defecting – we’re going to win the next election based on continuing to build support on a grassroots basis.
‘From hard working British people who are sick and tired of the two old parties which they’ve been stuck with for a century, who are now being offered a real alternative, who are waking up to that fact, and that’s why our support is continuing to grow.’
Mr Yusuf would not rule out being in talks with Tory or Labour MPs about defecting, though said he ‘wouldn’t be surprised’ if there were more.
Suella Braverman was forced to dismiss speculation she could join the party last month [DEC] after her husband Rael, a businessman, was unveiled as a new Reform recruit.
Meanwhile Nick Candy, a billionaire property developer and former Tory donor who is married to singer Holly Valance, was announced as the party’s new treasurer.
Following his appointment, Mr Candy said he had exchanged messaged with Elon Musk – who is rumoured to be considering making a massive donation to Reform.
Reports suggested Musk, who owns X – formerly known as Twitter, could cough up around £80 million ($100million). Musk has denied the sum – though has not ruled out making a large donation.
Mr Yusuf said Reform would ‘under no circumstances’ accept a donation ‘where there was any expectation of influence over anything’.
He added: ‘We need to win and we need to win in the right way, so that when we arrive in government we have a prime minister in Nigel Farage with a whole cabinet and hundreds of MPs united behind him who are very clear why they were voted in and with a really firm mandate to go and make the transformative changes the country will need.’
A Conservative source hit back at Mr Yusuf’s criticism of the Tories, saying the party is ‘united around Kemi Badenoch and the return to authentic conservative values’.
‘We will win back the trust of the British people by showing we understand where we went wrong in government, and saying how we will get it right in the future.
‘The voters are tired of the easy promises and nice-sounding soundbites that Reform offer, and it won’t take long for them to see through it.’