Reform UK's Zia Yusuf was shut down on Good Morning Britain after he refused to explain a tweet deemed racist by other politicians. The interview, which aired on Friday, 25 September, was swiftly brought to an end by hosts Ranvir Singh and Kate Garraway.
The Reform UK spokesperson appeared on the programme to discuss his party's plans to 'stop the small boats' and reduce migration into the UK. However, he was also probed on a social media post he shared weeks ago that was condemned by members on all sides of politics as racist.
Question over September tweet
The interview began with the politician speaking over the presenters. Ranvir asked him towards the end of the segment: "Can I just ask you, the last time you were due on this programme was on the 4th of September, we expected you on the programme and then it wasn't you that turned up, in fact, it was your chairman Lee Anderson who was quite discombobulated because he'd just got off a plane and didn't really know what was going on."
She continued: "Now, the day before you were due on this programme on 4th September, you had been roundly condemned by members on all sides of politics for being racist. Because you had said in a tweet about the Labour candidate in the Holborn by-election, 'The frontrunner for being foisted on the people of Holborn by Labour to replace the former Prime Minister Keir Starmer in our Parliament was born in Somalia. Do you understand what's happening?'
"That was roundly condemned as racist. Lee Anderson was challenged about it, he said he didn't know anything about it but he was going to talk to you very much later on, did he and what did he say?"
Yusuf deflects questions
Yusuf replied: "Yeah well look, firstly, that allegation is absurd on its face. I do think we need to have a serious conversation about this because shutting down legitimate concerns from British people by calling them names, I'm sorry, it's just not going to work anymore."
As he was speaking, Ranvir interrupted: "Sorry, what did you mean? The woman concerned was born in Somalia. Your colleague, Nadhim Zahawi was born in Iraq, are you saying that he doesn't have a right to run in politics because he has?"
Yusuf turned the question around to the presenters, saying: "Are you aware that we have more foreign nationals living in Britain than at any point in our history. Are you aware that we have more people who are born abroad living in this country than ever before. And are you aware that we have more Members of Parliament who are born abroad than at any other point in modern history?"
Ranvir replied by pointing out that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was born in New York, while Yusuf went on: "With respect, please let me finish, this is not to say that you cannot be a patriotic British person if you were born abroad, it is not to say you can't serve our country if you were born abroad, it's not to say those things. But there are a lot of people deeply concerned when they see things, let me give you a real example."
Interview cut short
As he tried to give anecdotal evidence of his point, Ranvir brought it back to her question, saying: "That isn't what you tweeted." Kate echoed: "Could you explain your tweet please, so we all understand it?" However, Yusuf continued by ignoring them, speaking over the presenters.
Ranvir said: "That isn't what you said, that's a deflection." Kate added: "If you don't explain what you meant by the tweet, it's going to be open to all sorts of accusations. We'd love to give you the chance to do it, do you think you could explain what you meant by it?"
"I just did," Yusuf claimed, continuing with what he'd been saying before. At that point, Ranvir was quick to shut down the interview, saying: "We don't want a repeat of the same answer but thank you so much."
"Zia Yusuf, you had your chance to respond to the tweet but you chose to deflect by talking about another issue. Thank you so much for joining us on the programme," she said. As he continued to speak over her, Ranvir ended the segment, saying: "I'm afraid we did run out of time on the interview there."
Kate added: "I really wanted to hear his view on it because so many others have commented, but he doesn't want to address the specific words, and words are so important." "Never mind, it's always good to speak to Zia Yusuf on the programme, lots more still to come," she added.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.
