The chair of Reform UK has said young people need a “sense of pride” about the UK, as he said his party’s mission would be to “remoralise” young people.
Speaking off the back of his party’s massive gains in the local elections, Zia Yusuf said young people were being taught to “hate their country” and that Reform’s mission was to change their morals.
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What do young people think of Churchill?
He told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “What we need to do is instil a sense of pride in the United Kingdom, a sense of pride in our history – and right now there is a… demoralisation campaign that has happened for young people.
“One in five 18 to 25 year olds now support Reform because they’re sick and tired of it.”
He added: “We are living in a competitive world. We’re competing with countries who don’t tell their young people that they should hate their country, that they should be ashamed of their history. And Reform is a deeply patriotic party, and we think we should ensure that children, at the very least, are not being indoctrinated to hate their country.
“We should be ensuring that they are taught the great things that Britain has provided the world, because there are many, many things we should be proud of.”
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In an interview with The Sunday Times, Mr Yusuf said Reform would erect statues of great British figures and end “all this woke nonsense”.
He continued: “How many young people know who Isambard Kingdom Brunel is? Look at the character assassination that has occurred on the legacy of Sir Winston Churchill,” he told the newspaper.
“The fact that they have to cover up his statue because they don’t want to provoke protesters. I mean that’s the sort of utterly indefensible so-called leadership that we’ve had and young people feel that in their bones.”
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Inside Reform’s election success
Read more:
Tory leader apologises to councillors as Reform makes big gains
‘I get it’: Starmer responds after losing Runcorn by-election to Reform UK
Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage and party chairman Zia Yusuf. Pic: Lucy North/PA Wire
He said he believes Reform leader Nigel Farage’s message is “resonating” with young people and added: “I think that a lot of young people we speak to feel very smothered by a finger-wagging sort of teaching class.
“They feel very restricted, they feel a huge lack of opportunity… You’re going to hear from us over the next couple of years more and more of a policy platform for young people, for Gen Z and for millennials.”
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Voters turn to Reform UK
Mr Farage has been more focused on what his party’s trajectory is doing to the Conservatives, saying in his column for The Telegraph that Kemi Badenoch’s party had been “hollowed out” and is experiencing a “strange death” due to the rising popularity of Reform.
He said the UK had reached a “new political age”, reiterating his earlier claims that two-party politics “is finished”.