Lowe himself has accused Farage of being too lenient on immigration.
Zia Yusuf, the British Muslim chair of the right-wing Reform Party, has been subjected to a wave of racist and Islamophobic abuse following the party’s suspension of MP Rupert Lowe on Friday.
In a statement that day, the anti-immigrant party—widely seen as a major threat to the Conservative Party and frequently leading in political polls—accused Lowe of verbally threatening Yusuf with physical violence and reported him to the police.
Reform also stated that Lowe was facing bullying allegations from two women who had worked for him. His suspension came just a day after the former Southampton Football Club chairman, who has over 300,000 followers on X, questioned Nigel Farage’s leadership in an interview with the Daily Mail.
Lowe has strongly denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated.
In the days that followed, Yusuf, a Muslim millionaire who became Reform’s largest donor shortly before the July 2024 election, faced a surge of racist and Islamophobic abuse online.
Much of it appears to be coming from social media users supportive of Reform.
In recent months, Rupert Lowe—whose parliamentary speeches often go viral online—has taken a more hardline stance on immigration and Islam than Reform Party leader Nigel Farage.
Farage previously faced backlash from many Reform members for stating in a podcast last year that he did not want to "alienate all of Islam."
Meanwhile, Zia Yusuf has maintained that he is a "British Muslim patriot" and that the majority of Muslims in Britain share similar patriotic values.
In contrast, Lowe has repeatedly called for mass deportations and has insisted that Palestinian asylum seekers should be barred from entering the UK. Last week, he also advocated for a ban on halal slaughter.
On X, a baseless far-right conspiracy theory has emerged, accusing Yusuf of orchestrating Lowe’s removal due to his strong views on migration and Islam. Others have speculated that Yusuf is deliberately working to undermine Reform from within.
"It has to be asked—was this Zia Yusuf's plan all along?" an anonymous account posted on Friday, garnering nearly 8,000 likes. "Did he buy into Reform just to destroy it from within and eliminate any opposition to the Islamic direction this country seems to be heading?"
Far-right commentator Laurence Fox also weighed in, writing in a post that received 18,000 likes: "There cannot be a valid opposition party in the UK with Zia Yusuf anywhere near it. A Britain-focused party cannot have a Mohammedan as the chair."
Many people seemed to want to emphasise Yusuf's Muslim identity by referring to him by his full name, Muhammad Zia Yusuf.
"I’ll ask the question as everyone else seems to be skirting around it - why is Muhammed Zia Yusuf anywhere near the Reform Party?" read a post that received more than 7,000 likes.
"If I wanted to elect a Muslim, I’d join the Labour Party."
Another user claimed that the singer was Yusuf and provided the famous "one pound fish" video, which was performed by a British-Pakistani market trader and went viral more than ten years ago.
"DEPORT ZIA YUSUF" was released by a well-known YouTuber along with a video of Lowe advocating for deportations.
Zia Yusuf’s parents migrated to Britain from Sri Lanka in the 1980s and worked for the National Health Service (NHS). Born in Scotland, he attended the fee-paying Hampton School in Middlesex on a 50 percent scholarship.
"My parents came here legally," Yusuf told The Telegraph last year. "When I talk to my friends, they are as affronted as anyone by illegal Channel crossings, which insult all hard-working British people—especially those migrants who followed the rules and arrived legally."
He started his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs before leaving to found Velocity Black, a luxury concierge app, which he sold for over £30 million in 2023.
Speaking to The Guardian last year, Yusuf stated that racists were not welcome in Reform and that he joined the party because he believed British values were “worth protecting.”
"Millions gave their lives in the World Wars to defend them, including hundreds of thousands of Muslims," he said.
Despite Reform’s surge in the polls, the party leadership has recently faced pressure to adopt more hardline positions on controversial topics like grooming gangs—an issue Rupert Lowe has been particularly outspoken about.
Billionaire X owner Elon Musk had reportedly considered donating to Reform but made headlines in January when he declared Nigel Farage unfit to lead due to his opposition to far-right anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson. Musk suggested that Lowe would be a more suitable leader.
Many Reform supporters believe Farage has softened his rhetoric in an effort to position the party as a more mainstream political force.
Lowe himself has accused Farage of being too lenient on immigration.
Farage has previously made a series of remarks that have led to accusations of Islamophobia.
In 2013, Nigel Farage claimed that some Muslims were “coming here to take us over.” Two years later, in 2015, he stated that certain Muslims aimed to become “a fifth column and kill us.”
More recently, in June of last year, he argued that young Muslims do not share British values and claimed that there are streets in Oldham “where no one speaks English.”
Despite these past remarks, Farage has since indicated his opposition to the blanket demonization of Muslims, distancing himself from the harsher views held by some within Reform.
"If we politically alienate the whole of Islam, we will lose," he said on a right-wing podcast, pointing to the perceived rapid growth of the Muslim population in Britain.
He stressed the need to "do everything we can" to bring the majority of British Muslims "with us."
However, many within his party disagree with this approach, and the internal conflict within Reform UK shows no signs of resolving anytime soon.
Zia Yusuf. Muhammad Ziauddin Yusuf (born c. 1986/1987) is a British businessman and political campaigner who has been the Chairman of Reform UK, a right-wing populist political party, since 11 July 2024.Muhammad Ziauddin Yusuf was born in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. His parents migrated from Sri Lanka to the UK in the 1980s, and both worked for the NHS. His father is a doctor and his mother is a nurse.
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