Reform in crisis as Nigel Farage's party descends into vicious infighting after chairman Zia Yusuf quits and it finishes THIRD in Scots by-election it was tipped to WIN
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Nigel Farage's Reform UK is facing its biggest crisis since the general election today after its chairman walked out and it finished a dismal third in a by-election it was tipped to win.
Former banker Zia Yusuf quit his senior role last night after appearing to call one of the party's MPs 'dumb' for backing a burqa ban in the House of Commons.
And in a shock result in the early hour of this morning Labour's Davy Russell became the new MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.
He won by 602 votes from the SNP in a contest that First Minister John Swinney had insisted was a two-horse race between his nationalists' Katy Loudon and Reform's Ross Lambie.
Reform, who didn't stand in the constituency in 2021, took 26.1 per cent of the vote.
The party descended into backstabbing and infighting after the shock decision by Mr Yusuf, which allies said came after Lee Anderson and Richard Tice backed Sarah Pochin over her outburst about Islamic clothing.
However, a source told the Mail that while Yusuf had 'worked 18-hour days for months ... he just doesn't get people like he gets an Excel spreadsheet.'
The knives are now also out for Nick Candy, the billionaire property developer and husband of Holly Valance who is party treasurer.
Sources told the FT that he has failed to bring in large amounts of cash donations and has not given all the £1million of his own that he has promised.
Mr Yusuf last night said he no longer believed that working for Reform to win power at the next general election was 'a good use of my time'.
He publicly questioned why Ms Pochin, Reform's recently-elected MP for Runcorn and Helsby, had challenged the Prime Minister about the issue on Wednesday.
There were also reports that Mr Yusuf had recently been 'sidelined' within Reform, including claims that some of his responsibilities had been passed elsewhere.
Mr Farage last night said he was 'genuinely sorry' at Mr Yusuf's exit, adding the financier was a 'huge factor' in Reform's success at May's local elections.
'Politics can be a highly pressured and difficult game and Zia has clearly had enough,' the Reform leader added. 'He is a loss to us and public life.'
In a further dramatic development, Nathaniel Fried - who had only days ago been drafted in by Reform to lead the party's 'DOGE' cost-cutting unit in local councils - also quit tonight.
The latest Reform chaos comes after Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe was kicked out of the party in March after he criticised Mr Farage's leadership.
Tim Montgomerie, a political commentator and Reform member, described Mr Yusuf's exit as a 'massive, massive setback' for the party.
'He was absolutely essential to what Reform were doing in terms of modernisation,' Mr Montgomerie told Times Radio of Mr Yusuf's role as chairman.
'The success and the professionalisation of Reform has owed an awful lot to him.
'I don't fully know what's happened in the last 24 hours, but I know he was very upset about the burka question that was asked by the new Reform MP for Runcorn.
'I think he has experienced quite a lot of personal nastiness on social media…because of it.
'He's a Muslim and I wonder whether that got to him a little bit.'
In Scotland, The SNP's vote share slumped by more than a third from 46.2 per cent to 29.3 per cent.
Labour's share of the vote was 31.5 per cent, down from the 33.6 per cent the party managed at the 2021 Holyrood election.
The Scottish Conservatives came fourth but narrowly held on to their deposit, falling from 17.5 per cent of the vote to six.
In his victory speech, Mr Russell said: 'Right across Scotland, we all feel we've been let down by the SNP. They've broken their NHS, wasted their money, and after nearly two decades, they don't deserve another chance.
'This community has also sent a message to Farage and his mob tonight. The poison of Reform isn't us, isn't Scotland, and we don't want your division here.'
But Mr Tice has said his party is 'delighted with the results' in the Hamilton by-election.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: 'It's truly remarkable.
'We've come from nowhere to being in a three-way marginal, and we're within 750 votes of winning that by-election and just a few hundred votes of defeating the SNP, so it's an incredible result.'
