Nigel Farage has said he will give Reform UK ally Zia Yusuf a “ticking off” after Yusuf branded former Tory defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace a “traitor” and a “moron”. The intervention follows a war of words between Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesman, and Wallace, a former Scots Guards captain and ex-defence secretary.
Farage: 'That's too strong a word'
Asked whether he agreed with Yusuf’s use of the word “traitor”, Farage said: “That's too strong a word. I should give him a ticking off. Don’t worry.” Pressed by The Sun on whether he would encourage Yusuf to delete the post on X, Farage said: “I’ll speak to him today, but yeah, it’s over the top.”
Yusuf’s comments came in response to Wallace’s criticism of Reform’s immigration plans. Yusuf, alongside Farage, had announced proposals to deport foreign national offenders to El Salvador and Kosovo.
Wallace's prison statistics challenge
Wallace noted that the top foreign nationalities in UK prisons are Irish, Polish, Romanian, Albanian and people from the Baltics. He added that the total number of foreign offenders “always hovered” around 10,000 to 11,000.
Wallace said: “Reform have to answer a) how they will force those countries to take these offenders. For decades they have refused to. B) if they won’t and then deport them but they are released how will that sit with their victims? And the Irish offenders will find it easy to return.”
Yusuf's response and other criticism
In response, Yusuf said: “Incredible that this moron was Defence Secretary.” He continued: “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 Ben Wallace.”
Farage was not the only Reform figure to criticise Yusuf. High-profile Reform supporter Tim Montgomerie said: “This isn't acceptable from Zia. I don't agree with Ben Wallace on this issue but Zia's language and attitude towards any opponent is inappropriate and counter-productive. Opponents are opponents... they aren't enemies... or "moron"s. One of the biggest question marks over Nigel Farage's leadership is whether he brings Zia under control. Zia Yusuf is a man of huge talents but too much of his social media output is intemperate and reinforces Reform's number one problem: our negative tactical voting challenge.”
