David Bull has been named as Reform UK’s new chairman.
The former TV presenter and medical doctor was announced as the party’s chairman at a press conference in Westminster, as leader Nigel Farage told reporters that his job would be to “give leadership” and “not to get involved with the admin.”
The appointment of Bull, who previously presented “Watchdog,” “Tomorrow’s World” and “Most Haunted Live!”, comes after businessman Zia Yusuf resigned from the position last week following an internal row over the party’s position on the burka.
Speaking at the press conference, Yusuf said he was “hugely excited” that former MEP Bull was taking the role.
“This party is no longer a start-up,” Yusuf told reporters.
“I think it’s gone to a scale-up phase … the reality is what we need now in a chairman is someone who is an incredible communicator, someone who’s loved universally across the party … someone who’s going to I think do a better job than me at energising volunteers on the front line.”
“I wholeheartedly congratulate him and I know he’s going to do an incredible job for us,” he added.
Farage said Bull would come to the chairman’s role with “terrific verve, energy, enthusiasm.”
He described Bull as a “terrific communicator” and that his “job is not to get involved with the admin, is not to get involved in the tech” but rather is to “give leadership to that volunteer army out there of people.”
Farage also said it is “very good” that the new chairman has TV experience, telling reporters that “message delivery and simplicity of message in politics is very important.”
Yusuf returned to Reform over the weekend, just 48 hours after he quit, saying he had made an “error.”
His departure followed an internal row, in which he described a question asked to the prime minister by the party’s newest MP, Sarah Pochin, about banning the burka as “dumb.”
Farage said on Tuesday he thinks the burka “probably is anti-British” but that the issue is not going to be “front line and centre” of their campaigning.
Number 10 said on Tuesday that “the government just does not believe in mandating what people can and can’t wear. It should be left up to people to make those decisions for themselves.”
Yusuf will now lead the party’s plans to cut public spending—the so-called “UK DOGE”—based on the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency which was led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
He described the job on Tuesday as “one of the most important missions this country will embark on since World War Two.”
However, Farage also said the party “thought hard” about whether to keep the name DOGE in the wake of Musk’s departure from the U.S. administration, but polling suggested the idea was still popular.
“There was a UK name that we thought we’d use, and then what polling showed us is that one of the things that’s wildly popular in the UK that’s happening in America is the concept of DOGE, and that DOGE had seeped into public consciousness and that to attempt to rebrand that would be a hell of a difficult effort.”
During the press conference Farage was also asked about his party’s position on the death penalty.
He said he thought that the issue would be “back within the next decade as an issue of major national debate” but described it as an issue “of conscience” and that “these things will not be party policy.”
The prime minister’s official spokesman later said: “The government is opposed to the death penalty as a matter of principle. I think it is a long-standing position of many governments of many colours and that position has not changed.”
According to the latest figures from YouGov, Reform is polling at 29 percent when it comes to national voting intention, ahead of Labour on 23 percent and the Conservatives on 17 percent.
