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Welcome to Political Thinker, conversation with rather than the interrogation of someone who shapes our political thinking about what has shaped theirs.

Which party do you think my guest this week could possibly be talking about?

By the time we get to the next general election,

we will win between 350 to 400 members of Parliament.

That is the man charged by Nigel Farage

with professionalising the Reform Party.

And yes, he says they're going to win the next election.

This in a week when Reform UK went ahead of Labour and the Tories in one opinion poll.

Zia Yousef is the chairman of Reform UK.

And let's be honest, he's not most people's idea of what a Nigel Farage supporter looks like.

He's a young Muslim man, the son of Sri Lankan

immigrants, and he studied international relations at the LSE. Zia Youssef, welcome to political

thinking. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. What was that moment like? Reform

HQ. The news comes through. You've got an office next to Nigel Farage is there,

you're ahead in the polls. It's quite a moment. It was a lovely moment and it's incredibly important,

as I said to the team, to enjoy the milestones, you know, on what is going to be a long and

no doubt sometimes very challenging journey and we'll have downs we'll have ups you know some

days will be better than others but I think the words enthusiastic the words electric would be the words

I'd use to describe the atmosphere in HQ but that's exactly how you would describe and characterize

the atmosphere at our conferences all of the events we do, however big or small, and these days,

they're obviously getting bigger and bigger. So there's a real sense of enthusiasm and optimism

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