Moment Reform’s Zia Yusuf loses it on GB News as furious Keir Starmer row erupts

Reform UK‘s Spokesperson for Home Affairs Zia Yusuf gave a damning appraisal of Prime Minister Keir Starmer during an appearance on GB News breakfast. Speaking to hosts Ellie Costello and Stephen Dixon he described him as an “evil” man and slammed the way he “treats people”. His remarks came after Dixon addressed the current Peter Mandelson vetting scandal engulfing Starmer. “Should he face an official parliamentary sleaze inquiry over his handling of the Mandelson scandal, and does he need to be referred to the Privileges Committee?” he asked.

In response, Yusuf said: “I think obviously those things need to happen, but…can we just be honest about this Starmer/Mandelson situation? Just imagine you are recruiting for a job, any sort of job at all, and a candidate walks through the door, and somebody tells you that they are known as, quote, ‘The Prince of Darkness’, and that they had to be forced to resign from two senior positions that they last had. How much interest would you have had in even interviewing such a candidate for that job, and to the degree you did interview them, how much interest would you have taken in whether they actually passed vetting?

“So I think a lot of this is now theatre,” he continued. “…Clearly, Starmer is a liar. Clearly, the narrative set up about Starmer…[that] he might be a bit out of his depth, and he’s a bit procedural, but he’s fundamentally a good man

“…I think, [he is] actually quite an evil man, looking at this, looking the way he treats people. It’s a disdain for British people, his disdain for people who work for him and throwing them under the bus. He talks about taking responsibility. Taking responsibility means actually bearing some consequence yourself for your actions, for which he has done none,” he fumed.

Host Dixon pulled him up on his remarks. “That’s very strong language that you’re using here…the problem you’ve got here is that you need evidence, don’t you?” he said.

“…You can question his judgement, as he admitted he made a mistake by looking to appoint Mandelson in the first place…you can criticise him for saying he was too hands off with all of this. But where’s the evidence to say he’s a liar, which is very in parliamentary terms, as you know, is very strong language. You’ve got to be able to justify. You’ve got to be able to prove it,” he pressed.

Yusuf shot back: “I’ve just aired my opinion. I think those opinions are shared by millions of people in this country. The polls show he is the most unpopular Prime Minister this country has ever seen, certainly since polling records began.

“My characterisation of him is driven, actually, less even by this Manderson affair, but by his conduct since he became a politician. He pumped the labour membership in order to win the leadership. Pretended to be a Corbynista and then was obviously… presented himself as something different.

“And since coming to power, what has he done? He’s gone out of his way to try to jail people for tweets and for things on social media. He’s used every possible angle with the online safety act… to try to crush political dissent. He’s withdrawing jury trials from British people for many trials for British people, the right that we’ve had since the Magna Carta.

“He tried desperately to cancel elections for millions of people. The only reason that many elections even happening next month is because of our judicial review that was successful, and Nigel’s [Farage] absolute unwillingness to let democracy slide like that…. I think the Manderson scandal, the scandal, as it is, of epic proportions, pales in significance to the enormous damage this man has already done to Britain, and the sooner he goes, the better,” he said.