History will judge Boris Johnson as one of the most damaging prime ministers in British history, Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf has said.
Yusuf told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast Johnson would not be welcome to join Reform UK.
The Reform UK chairman criticised Johnson’s record on the Covid pandemic, immigration and public spending when he was prime minister between 2019 and 2022.
Yusuf said there was “nothing Conservative” about Johnson and branded the Tories an “extremely left-wing party” in government.
The BBC has asked Johnson’s spokesperson for comment.
The party chairman spoke to the BBC’s Nick Robinson days after Reform UK topped a YouGov opinion poll for the first time, edging in front of Labour on 24% and the Tories on 21%.
The rebranded Brexit Party came third in last year’s general election, with 14% of the vote, but only gained five MPs, including party leader Nigel Farage.
Yusuf said if there was a general election tomorrow, the polling suggests Reform UK would win between 140 to 200 seats in the House for Commons.
He claimed Reform UK would win up to 400 seats at the next general election, although there is no polling to back that up.
At a new conference this week, Yusuf said Reform UK had almost 200,000 members, which is far higher than the number declared by the Conservative Party.
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.
A former banker who sold his tech start-up company for more than £200m, Yusuf described himself as a “proud British Muslim patriot”, adding that his faith was important to him and he observed Ramadan.
He became Reform UK’s chairman shortly after last year’s general election, after previously being a member of the Conservative Party.
He revealed that he had donated £200,000 to the party during the campaign.
As party chairman, he was given the job of professionalising the party, wooing donors and increasing Reform UK’s activist base.
He told Nick Robinson Reform UK only had 24 employees and “people don’t quite appreciate what has been achieved in such a short time”.
“So much of what we do is about laying the foundations for generations to come,” he added.
Kemi Badenoch denied plans to make it harder for migrants to gain British citizenship – which was her first major polcy annoucement as Tory leader – was a response to the rise of Reform UK.
She dismissed its surge in the polls, saying she could remember when another insurgent party, the SDP, was “at 50% in the polls” in the 1980s, and insisted her party was concentrating on “doing the thinking” on policies that would improve lives.
Labour is also increasingly turning its fire on Reform UK, with Sir Keir Starmer attacking Farage’s stance on NHS funding at this week’s prime minister’s questions.
You can listen to the Political Thinking with Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday at 17:30 GMT or on BBC Sounds.
