Farage to give Reform ally ‘ticking off’ after he branded ex-minister a traitor

George Thompson, Press Association Political Staff

Nigel Farage has said he will give Reform ally Zia Yusuf a “ticking off” after he branded a Conservative former defence secretary a “traitor to Britain”.

Mr Yusuf launched an attack on Sir Ben Wallace on Monday, branding him a “moron” before suggesting he should be prosecuted “for treason for importing thousands of unvetted Afghans to Britain”.

Speaking to the Sun, Mr Farage admonished the Reform UK home affairs spokesman, saying calling Sir Ben – who served in the Scots Guard – a traitor was “too strong a word”.

The Reform leader said: “I should give him (Mr Yusuf) a ticking off, don’t worry.”

Asked if he would be encouraging Mr Yusuf to delete the social media posts in which he criticised Sir Ben, he added: “I’ll speak to him.

“I’ll speak to him today, but, yeah, it’s over the top.”

The row erupted after the Tory former defence secretary criticised Reform’s plans to send foreign national offenders to jails abroad.

Responding, Mr Yusuf argued on X his party’s plans were a “direct response to your government’s failures” and accused Sir Ben of having secretly “imported” thousands of Afghan migrants to the UK.

“That’s why I call you a traitor to Britain. You fit the dictionary definition,” he said.

Sir Ben told Times Radio that Mr Yusuf should “apologise for his language”.

He said: “The use of the word traitor is a very loaded word. Traditionally, treason and traitor comes with a death sentence, historically.

“Only a few weeks ago, Ann Widdecombe was murdered in what could potentially be a political attack, and Reform were telling everyone about being careful with their language – and I agree with that.

“But when you start calling people traitors, it is a very heavy connotation, and it’s pretty insulting.”

While Sir Ben was defence secretary, a 2022 data leak saw the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who applied for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) released “in error”.

The breach went unnoticed for over a year, and following Sir Ben’s departure as defence secretary in 2023, a superinjunction, which remained in place for two years, was granted at the High Court in an attempt to prevent the Taliban finding out about it.

The leak led to the creation of a secret Afghan relocation scheme – the Afghanistan Response Route – in April 2024.

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