A British-born Muslim businessman has donated hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, undercutting the legacy media narrative of “Islamophobia” within the populist party.
Zia Yusuf, the co-founder of the digital concierge firm Velocity Black — which he sold last year to Capital One for £233 million — has made the largest donation of the UK election campaign, reportedly in the hundreds of thousands, to the Reform party of Nigel Farage.
Yusuf, 37, born to Sri Lankan immigrants in Scotland, said that Farage’s message against illegal immigration and the record levels of legal migration resonates with many immigrant families in the UK, particularly those who came into the country legally.
“My parents came here legally. When I talk to my friends they are as affronted as anyone by illegal Channel crossings, which are an affront to all hard-working British people but not least the migrants who played by the rules and came legally,” the millionaire entrepreneur told The Telegraph.
“I think Britain can be an amazing country, it’s the country of Dyson and DeepMind, but we have completely lost control of our borders, that is just factually correct,” Yusuf added.
“These are incredibly challenging times and whether it’s house prices or rental prices or the NHS, we need courageous, bold politicians who are able to confront these problems and look them in the eye, and Nigel Farage and Richard Tice are the only ones prepared to talk about this.”
The businessman, describing himself as a “patriot” and a believer in British values, rejected the narrative often pushed by the left and the legacy media that Mr Farage and his supporters are racist or Islamophobic for calling for a reduction in immigration.
“I am a businessman, an entrepreneur, and I have come across racism and Islamophobia so I know what it looks like,” he said. “Having spent time with Nigel Farage it’s clear to me that he wants the best for Britain and its people, no matter their religion or skin colour.”
On the other hand, Yusuf said that he had very little faith in Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer or Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to deliver on issues such as migration.
“I have paid millions in taxes, created hundreds of jobs… I know how important it is to make hard decisions in a timely fashion and that’s not what I see from the Conservatives.”
Responding to the large donation from Yusuf, reportedly the largest to any party of the campaign to date, Mr Farage said: “I met Zia many years ago and know how devoted to this country he is. Aside from his generosity, he will be a great asset and media performer during this campaign and beyond.”
Mr Farage came under fire last month after warning that a growing number of Muslims — particularly the swathes of young military-age males imported into the country by the allegedly Conservative government — stand in opposition to British values.
“We have a growing number of young people in this country who do not subscribe to British values, in fact, loathe much of what we stand for. I think we see them on the streets of London every Saturday,” Farage said.
The Brexit leader pointed to recent polling finding that nearly half of the Muslim population in the UK are sympathetic towards the jihadist Hamas terrorists responsible for the October 7th terror attacks on Israel which saw over 1,200 innocent people slaughtered and over 200 more taken captive as hostages of Hamas.
The survey also found that around one in three Muslims in the UK would prefer Sharia to become the law in Britain while 52 per cent backed criminal punishments for depictions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed.
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