Zia Yusuf has been slammed as “rude” for his response to an audience member on Question Time.
The Reform chairman appeared on an immigration special of the BBC programme on Thursday evening, alongside Labour’s Migration Minister Mike Tapp, Tory shadow Justice Minister Kieran Mullan, Lib Dem Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper and Green Party leader Zack Polanski.
At one point in the show, a man in the audience took Yusuf to task over some of his claims on migrants and their importance to health and social care in the UK.
He asked Yusuf whether migrant care workers who had worked in Britain for decades would be sent back to their country of birth once they turn 65.
“Is that what you’re suggesting,” he asked.
READ NEXT: A Tory–Reform election pact would be doomed to fail
In response, Yusuf bluntly said to the man: “No, it’s not at all, and if you had paid attention to what we were announcing, you would not have that view.”
Yusuf’s tone prompted jeers from the audience, with one woman heard shouting: “That’s rude!”
Labour minister Tapp could be heard saying it was “typically rude,” telling Yusuf: “You can be polite to people.”
Sharing the clip on X, one person said Yusuf “showed who he really is” with the comment.”
After the exchange, Tapp told the Reform man to “be polite to these lovely people.”
In a tweet, Tapp wrote: “Not only is Zia Yusuf lacking any compassion, he is a rude human being. We do not need people like him in British politics.”