The ‘British Muslim patriot’ on a mission to get Farage into No. 10

Few people had heard of Zia Yusuf before he spoke at Reform’s final campaign rally in Birmingham. But after a stirring speech to 4,000 supporters, he became one of the election’s overnight stars. ‘This boy’s got real talent,’ admitted Nigel Farage afterwards. He is now emerging as one of the more intriguing figures in the landscape of the right: a self-described ‘British Muslim patriot’, a 37-year-old multimillionaire, who says his mission in politics is to take Farage to No. 10.

When we meet at The Spectator office (his £100,000 Range Rover parked outside), Yusuf says that a Reform UK government is quite conceivable. ‘We need five million votes extra from here,’ he says. ‘We think there’s around ten million in play for us.’ It’s unlikely – it would need roughly half of Labour and Tory voters to consider switching next time. But succeeding against the odds is normal to Yusuf. He became a multimillionaire last year after selling his company. ‘I was actually laying the groundwork to start a foundation before this,’ he says. ‘Very much focused on social mobility, which is close to my heart because I think I’m a reasonable example of that.’

Yusuf was born in Bellshill, a town in North Lanarkshire. His father was a paediatrician and his mother a nurse. They emigrated from Sri Lanka in the 1980s and because Yusuf won a half-scholarship, they could just about manage the fees at Hampton School in west London. Yusuf’s career in banking set him on course to be a Goldman Sachs partner, but in search of a different way of life he teamed up with a school friend, Alex Macdonald, and set up Velocity Black, a luxury concierge service, providing elite services to the ultra-rich via their phones.