Johnson UK’s most damaging PM, says Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf

The BBC has been told Boris Johnson had lunch with Reform UK’s main fundraiser Nick Candy, who is also an old friend, in Mayfair in late January.

But Yusuf told Nick Robinson he would not want the former PM to join Reform UK.

“History will judge Boris Johnson as one of the most damaging prime ministers in this country’s history,” he said.

The increase in net migration during Johnson’s premiership was “a total betrayal of everybody who voted for Brexit, ” he added.

“He took public spending close to Soviet Union spending.

“So there was nothing Conservative about him.”

By contrast, Yusuf heaped praise on former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and said she would be welcome in Reform UK.

He said he had had several meetings with Braverman, whom he said had been “excommunicated” and made a “pariah” by the Conservatives, despite what he said were her far-sighted views on immigration.