- 6/10/2025
TalkTV presenter David Bull has been appointed as Reform UK's new chairman, succeeding Zia Yusuf who resigned last week following internal party tensions.Speaking at a London event, Farage said Bull's job was "not to get involved in the admin" but to "give leadership" to activists.The party leader praised Bull's appointment, saying he would come to the chairman's role with "terrific verve, energy, enthusiasm", adding: "It's going to be great fun".Bull's primary mission will be to energise Reform's grassroots supporters rather than managing operational matters.WATCH THE CLIP ABOVE FOR MORE
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00:00The last 11 months, with a very, very minimal number of staff.
00:04If you do want to listen to Starmer, please scan the QR code that's...
00:07Oh, it's gone.
00:08Here's Nigel Farage.
00:10Who was doing pretty much everything behind the scenes and sometimes in front as well.
00:15All of which explains his bid for freedom last week.
00:23He crawled out under the wire
00:25and was running away in the woods as fast as he possibly could.
00:32Leaving a trail of not-so-brilliant tweets behind.
00:39But after 48 hours, we got him and he's back inside.
00:43And he will be taking over a job that will still consume him for a good 12 hours a day.
00:49Maybe not the 18 hours a day he's been doing for me over the course of the last 11 months.
00:56I'm a good, kind boss, he'll tell you.
00:58I thanked him once over the course of the last year.
01:02But he's back.
01:04And he's head of UK Doge, among other things.
01:08And I want to introduce him onto the stage right now.
01:12See you.
01:14APPLAUSE
01:14Good morning, everybody.
01:23So, sorry to put you all through that.
01:25I did realise the only way I was going to get a couple of days off was to resign and then come back.
01:31Look, I came into politics out of a sense of duty.
01:35I was over the moon and ecstatic when Nigel said he was returning to frontline politics
01:40to take over as leader of Reform UK.
01:43I said I wanted to do everything in my power to make him Prime Minister and to get a Reform government in.
01:50My commitment to that is redoubled.
01:52One of the things that happened, actually, after I had sent those ill-advised tweets, which I regret,
02:00was I was inundated with many, many, many messages, heartfelt messages,
02:05from people, frankly, in my day-to-day job.
02:07I just didn't hear from that often because my information diet was just far too ex-focused.
02:12And what I realised was just how important the Reform movement was to people.
02:19It is not just a political party.
02:21Words like heartfelt.
02:24You know, people, there was a gentleman who was in palliative care
02:27who said that this movement represented what he viewed as really the last chance for this great country to turn itself around.
02:34So I realised how critical Reform UK was to so many millions of people, how critical Nigel is,
02:42his leadership, our amazing MPs, our volunteers, everybody around the country who has contributed to this.
02:48I could not leave that behind.
02:52And sometimes in life, and I hope all of you might agree with this,
02:55that sometimes when it takes having a little bit of distance from something
03:00to realise how important it is to you.
03:04I can't thank Nigel enough for having me back.
03:09I regret those tweets.
03:11I'm just to perhaps jump ahead of some questions, just to be really clear.
03:15I was exhausted 11 months, and we're really proud of what we've achieved.
03:20We've gone from 14% support in the country to 30%.
03:22We've got 400 branches full of amazing volunteers across the country.
03:26The membership has quadrupled in size to 230,000.
03:30And we're very proud of what I think will be the most historically important set of local election results
03:37in this country's history.
03:39So I'm hugely fortunate, and I feel very blessed to be back amongst this amazing team.
03:46And look, I'm going to be serving, as Nigel said, to lead the Doge UK efforts.
03:51The national budget is £1.2 trillion a year.
03:55The amount of waste, and in some cases corruption, is off the charts, and a reckoning is coming.
04:00I want to give you an example.
04:01Let's say Kent County Council, where we visited, feels like a lifetime ago now, but I think it was two weeks,
04:07confirmed, I mean, by their own admission, £2.8 million of fraud last year,
04:12the vast majority of which is actually inside the so-called mandatory statutory budgets in which there are apparently no savings to be found.
04:20They've been paying taxpayer money for, you know, taxi companies submitting invoices for journeys that never happened.
04:25Adult social care companies submitting invoices for care of people who had long since deceased.
04:31Paying employees who had long since left.
04:34As Lee said, the snouts have been in the trough for far too long.
04:38Look, there are a lot of great people who do great work in the public sector, but there is no doubt there's a huge amount of waste.
04:43We're assembling an all-star team of brilliant people who are working for free.
04:50They're going to use cutting-edge tools and technology to do, frankly, an inhuman amount of work to get to the bottom of where there is waste and potentially corruption.
04:58So, very excited to do that.
05:00And actually, I think, in terms of how important it is, given the enormous growth in public spending and the state of this country's finances,
05:08I actually think it's going to be one of the most important missions this country will embark on since World War II.
05:14So, I'm really excited about that.
05:16I'm even more excited that Dr. David Bull is going to be the new chairman of the party.
05:22Look, this party is no longer a start-up.
05:24I think it's gone to scale-up phase, to use perhaps a tech analogy.
05:30And, look, the reality is what we need now in a chairman is someone who is an incredible communicator,
05:36someone who's loved universally across the party, loved by the volunteers,
05:41someone who's going to, I think, do a better job than me at energizing volunteers on the front line.
05:46He's going to have more time to do it.
05:48I think you probably agree he's a more affable and charming man than I am.
05:52So, look, I am hugely excited that Dr. David Bull is going to be taking up the role of chairman.
06:02I wholeheartedly congratulate him, and I know he's going to do an incredible job for us.
06:07Thank you very much, everyone.
06:18Zia, thank you very much indeed.
06:21Zia has done a phenomenal job, but so much of what he's had to do has been in the office in London.
06:26We are dividing responsibilities within the party.
06:30We've got a new head of operations.
06:32We're going to have a new head of treasury very shortly.
06:34And our new chairman, Dr. David Bull, known to me, we served together in the European Parliament for a period of time.
06:42To those of you who are longer in the tooth, he was on John Craven's news round years ago.
06:47And has done an awful lot of television in the intervening time, and he was hosting a programme on talk radio until about five minutes ago when he rang the boss.
06:58And David is a terrific communicator, and Zia was being very self-deprecatory there.
07:06But David's job is not to get involved with the admin, is not to get involved with the tech.
07:13It's to give leadership, and above all, to give leadership to that volunteer army.
07:18Out there are people, as Zia mentioned, of 450 branches.
07:22And they're going to be seeing an awful lot of Dr. David Bull over the course of the coming years.
07:28And he comes into this job with terrific verve, energy, enthusiasm.
07:33And it's going to be great fun, Dr. David Bull.
08:06David Bull on the platform.
08:08I did predict this in my newspaper, The Daily Mail, that he was going to be the new chairman.
08:11He's an obvious choice.
08:12How did you know that, Andrew Pearce?
08:14Sources.
08:14He's a great communicator.
08:16He looks good.
08:18He's committed to the cause.
08:19He was once a Tory.
08:20He was a Tory parliamentary candidate, but stood down back in 2009.
08:24But he's been a big Brexiteer.
08:27He's a good mate of Farage's.
08:28He's a good man.
08:29I know him very well.
08:30We did telly together right in the early 2000s.
08:32Here he is.
08:33Here he is.
08:34All the members, first of all, from Reform UK, I want to say a very good morning to all
08:39the supporters of Reform UK and, of course, ladies and gentlemen of the press.
08:45I am absolutely bowled over.
08:47I am thrilled.
08:48I am delighted to take up this position of chairman of Reform UK.
08:53It is the fastest-growing political party this country has ever seen.
08:59It is an absolutely massive role, which you've heard from Zia.
09:03It's a huge role.
09:04I will take it up with vigour, determination, enthusiasm, and a smattering of trepidation.
09:10It is an absolutely vast role.
09:14I'm also deeply honoured that Nigel has asked me to do this.
09:18We go back a very long way, as you heard.
09:21I'm absolutely thrilled that he's put his trust into me as we continue with the growth,
09:27the development, and the professionalisation of the party.
09:32Now, I'm really sorry that the story broke last night on Mail Online, and I'm very sorry
09:37about that.
09:37The thing that I'm most upset about is after 30 years of broadcasting in news and current
09:43affairs from Newsround, Watchdog, Health Check, Tomorrow's World, and also my show on Talk
09:48TV, the journalist in question decided to pin my entire career on the world's largest live
09:55ghost hunt, which I used to present some 20 years ago.
09:59Now, having said that, I'm going to use my skills in the paranormal to dig around and
10:04find skeletons in the closet of the Conservative Party and the Labour Party as well.
10:11Now, as Nigel said, my role is very much going to be externally facing.
10:15I've spent a lot of time on the ground campaigning with Richard over the years, and the lifeblood
10:21of this party is the voluntary party.
10:24They are an extraordinary group of people.
10:27They go out, regardless of the weather, they knock on doors, they put leaflets through
10:33the letterboxes, they set up market stalls, and they really are such an important, vital
10:39asset to this party.
10:41What I want to do is to go around the country to show some love to all of those people who
10:46believe that this country deserves better.
10:50So that's the externally facing role.
10:52But one other thing that's crucial is we are growing and developing the professional party
10:57as well.
10:59So my role is about bringing those two parts of the party together, the voluntary party,
11:03the professional party, and I want to act as a conduit between the two.
11:10I do want to pay enormous tribute to Zia.
11:13He has done an extraordinary job.
11:15If I look back to my involvement in the party, Zia has professionalised the party beyond belief.
11:23As he talked about all the branches that he has set up, the governance structures and
11:27the candidates that we've put into place, that is no mean feat at all.
11:32I'm also, I have to say, on a very selfish note, delighted you are staying and, of course,
11:37heading up the Doge Unit, which is going to be absolutely vital as we move forward and
11:42show what Reform UK can do in local government.
11:46I'm also thrilled he's going to help with fundraising as well, because, of course, that's important
11:50for any political party.
11:53And also, Zia is the most fantastic media performer.
11:57He's a great, charismatic person in front of camera, and he will also be helping me and
12:02the Members of Parliament in terms of spreading the message of Reform UK on the national and
12:08local media.
12:09Now, I've actually been involved with the party, as Nigel said, for a very long time.
12:15I was elected in the Brexit party as an MEP for the North West.
12:20I've stayed with the party ever since then.
12:23And, in fact, I think it's fair to say that Reform UK was founded in my kitchen in Suffolk,
12:30I think, with Richard Tyers.
12:32Nigel decided to go off on a sabbatical, and Richard gamely stood up and became the leader
12:37of the party.
12:38I became the deputy leader of the party, and we grew the party from 2% to 3%, then 6%, 7%,
12:448%.
12:45But when Nigel came back, we have now rocketed off the charts.
12:51We're now polling consistently at 31% across the board, pretty much in every single poll
12:57you look at.
12:58And the results are evident.
13:00We are now in overall control of 13 councils.
13:05We are the largest party on two other councils as well, Doncaster and Cornwall.
13:10We have 832 councillors across the country.
13:15We're gaining more by the day when people defect, or indeed when there are by-elections as well.
13:21When you look at our membership, it has also rocketed to 233,000 members.
13:29That is just shy of a quarter of a million members in this country.
13:36And let me tell you, in the last quarter of last year, we gained 70,000 members alone.
13:42That is unprecedented in modern political history.
13:48What else have we achieved?
13:50Well, of course, five members of parliament.
13:52Of course, we have two mayors in Greater Lincolnshire with Dame Andrea Jenkins, and Hull
13:56and East Yorkshire with Luke Campbell, MBE.
14:00The key for me with this party is we have grown it from the ground up.
14:06This is a grassroots party.
14:08It is through the strength, determination, hard work of all those people around the country
14:12who have been out and about canvassing, delivering, leafleting, and setting up those market stalls.
14:20So what happens from here?
14:22Well, as Nigel said, I've just told my boss at Talk TV that I shall be taking up for this role.
14:26Good morning, Denny.
14:28And so I shall be going around the country.
14:31I want to really be there to support all of our members, our volunteers, our elected officials,
14:38and, of course, crucially, our candidates.
14:40Being a candidate is really difficult.
14:44And, of course, you have to work very hard.
14:46You often get abuse hurled at you.
14:48And I want to be there because I've been there many times before to help and to support them.
14:53And given my background, I will also be helping the members of parliament, Zia and Nigel,
14:58being a voice on national and local media as well.
15:02I see this as the ultimate push.
15:07We are going to fight and we are going to win the next general election.
15:12And we are going to put Nigel Farage into number 10.
15:17And we will become the governing party of the United Kingdom.
15:21Can we do it?
15:23Well, to quote Bob the Builder, yes, we can.
15:26Thank you very much.
15:27Thank you very much.
15:27That is the new chair of Reform UK, the new chairman.
15:35I don't mind chair.
15:36I don't mind the gender neutral in that case.
15:37Why?
15:38I think a chair, he says what it does.
15:40Oh, we're going to listen to Nigel Farage now, who is, of course, the leader of Reform UK.
15:44Here he is.
15:44He's listening on the radio.
15:52Zia Youssef is handing Nigel Farage a piece of paper.
15:55There's a list there with 20 press names.
15:56Oh, he's looking for a list with 20 press journalists.
16:00He had a list.
16:04There we go.
16:05He's got his list.
16:05He's the chairman with a tea leaf.
16:09Right.
16:10OK.
16:10We have a lot of questions.
16:12I will attempt to rattle through them as best I can.
16:15But obviously, if you need to direct a question at somebody else, we'll get them up on stage.
16:19Let's start with Jack Fenwick from the BBC.
16:22Jack Fenwick, BBC News.
16:28A week ago, we didn't know that you'd be standing here announcing a new chairman.
16:33Parties led by yourself have had a number of rows and resignations over the years.
16:38Does that all need to end if Reform is going to be a credible party of government?
16:43Rows and resignations?
16:44Yes, that's right.
16:45Seven chairmen since 2022 and four leaders.
16:48They're called the Conservative Party and they're like ferrets in a sack.
16:52And, you know, people come and go in politics, but I think you'll find, if you look around,
17:00even in this room, there are people that have worked with me for five years,
17:03people in this room that have worked with me for 10 years,
17:06people in this room that have worked with me for 20 years.
17:08People I employed back in the city, back in the 1990s, are still friends of mine.
17:12I am very, very loyal to people, all the while they're loyal to me.
17:16But in politics, it doesn't always quite work like that.
17:19And, I mean, you know, given the sins that were committed last week, look at my levels of forgiveness.
17:25The serious point is, yes, of course, what we have to do is to build a team
17:33as we go forward to the next general election.
17:37And that's going to have to be a very broadly based team.
17:39We're going to have to have, you know, effectively, as we go into the next election and before,
17:45you know, you're going to need to see who our potential Chancellor is.
17:48You're going to need to see.
17:49And I understand all of that.
17:51And that will happen as part of our evolution.
17:54Thank you very much.
17:55Adam Cherry, GB News.
17:58Can I just clarify the remit of the new chairman position?
18:02Is it mostly ambassadorial?
18:04Is David Bull, is his homework going to be marked by Zia Youssef and yourself?
18:08Does he have any sort of executive administrative function?
18:12Oh, gosh, that's all a bit too clever for me.
18:14It's perfectly clear what Zia's going to do.
18:16He's going to head up UK Doge.
18:18He's going to continue to help work on policy development, such as the crypto and digital assets bill
18:26that I launched at the Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago.
18:31He'll go on doing media, as David said.
18:34You know, he's an excellent media performer.
18:37You know, wherever he is, whoever's questioning him.
18:40And he will also continue to help as and where he can, raising money for the party.
18:45His roles and responsibilities are clear.
18:47I will be leaning on him to help us with some data things, stuff that he's done for us brilliantly in the past.
18:53David's job is not ambassadorial.
18:56David's job is inspirational.
18:58You know, for example, in Greater London alone, we have to find 1,800 candidates to fight those 32 boroughs that are up next year.
19:07We have to get them through a vetting process.
19:09You know, getting people to stand for election does take a bit of leadership, a bit of inspiration.
19:15It's something I've been doing a lot of over the course of the last year.
19:19David will play a very leading role in that.
19:21Plus, when you've got a voluntary party, you know, these people are giving of their own time and money and they need, actually, someone to spend a lot of time going around and seeing them.
19:32There's no way that Zia and I could do as much of that as we'd like to have done.
19:37And David is going to spend a lot of time out on the road.
19:40It is a lot more than ambassadorial.
19:42Thank you very much indeed.
19:44Jack Elson from The Sun.
19:48Thank you, Nigel.
19:49Jack Elson from The Sun.
19:50It's been clear for the past few days that reform are not afraid to have some robust conversations about some of the big issues.
19:57So can I ask about another one?
19:58Because after the sentencing of the Southport killer in January, Lee Anderson and Richard Tice mooted bringing back the death penalty.
20:06Sarah Poachin said in the Runcorn by-election she would never support such a thing.
20:11So can I ask what your and the party's position is on that?
20:14These are issues of conscience, just as the assisted dying debate will be when it comes up on Friday, just as the abortion limit.
20:21These are all issues of conscience.
20:25Nothing on the death penalty will be part of party policy.
20:29I have to say personally, I think given there have been 500 quite serious miscarriages of justice in this country since the early 1970s, I don't think I could ever support it.
20:41But I understand why others take a different point of view.
20:45Although I do think it's quite interesting that a younger generation coming through who seem to increasingly support the death penalty.
20:51And I suspect it will be back within the next decade as an issue of major national debate.
20:57Not quite yet, but it's coming.
20:59But certainly these things will not be party policy.
21:02Far, far from it.
21:04Sam Coates from Sky News.
21:07Nigel Farage, how important is it, how useful is it to have a new chairman who's got lots of experience on the telly?
21:14Well, actually very good.
21:15As you know yourself, having made the transition to being a TV star, I even think, Sam, you might have bought one or two new suits, although they're still crumpled.
21:31I think message delivery and simplicity of message in politics is very important.
21:41I mean, sit and watch question time.
21:42You know, hear the first question to the minister or the shadow minister.
21:47They'll give a 90-second answer.
21:48Nudge the person next to you and say, what did he or she just say?
21:52And they'll go, um, you know, can't quite remember.
21:55So clarity of message, message delivery, getting people to understand what you're saying, even if they disagree with it, is vital.
22:03And I think David's got more experience than all the rest of us in doing that.
22:07And I think that really, really does matter.
22:11Carl, ITV.
22:12Thank you very much.
22:15Carlton in ITV News.
22:16I just wonder where you stand on Sizewell C and whether or not your government, the government that you would head, would put billions of pounds into nuclear power or would you prefer coal?
22:27You know, we need coal in small quantities for specialist reasons.
22:35And we should mine our own and not import it from Japan and Australia.
22:38But that is quite different to reopening every coal-fired power station in Britain.
22:42Although I think it was moronic to close down Ratcliffe, the last one, which is a very useful backup.
22:46Absolutely moronic thing to do.
22:49But then from Ed Billiband, what would you expect?
22:51The arguments being made this morning in favour of Sizewell are remarkable.
22:56We're being told that it's carbon zero energy and that it gives us constant energy.
23:03So how can the government, on the one hand, argue for that and, on the other, argue for a massive increase in intermittent renewables whose energy doesn't fit our national grid system?
23:16And it's very interesting that on May the 29th, we were once again a whisker away from the lights going out in this country.
23:25And we've had several days this year when we've had to import over 20% of our electricity.
23:31This is the lunacy that we were taken into, Boris Johnson, you know, the Saudi Arabia of wind, that being carried on.
23:39We are, as a party, pro-nuclear.
23:41We think, ultimately, if you do want to reduce carbon emissions, it is the only way, frankly, to do it.
23:48I would just make two points, one being that both Hinkley and Sizewell are a pretty outdated model of nuclear reactor, first point.
23:59And the second point, it's remarkable how much nuclear energy costs in this country compared to other countries in the world who can do it at a half or maybe even a third of the price.
24:10I'll talk more about that over the course of the next week.
24:13Thank you very much indeed.
24:15Caitlin.
24:15So that's Nigel Farage speaking at Reform Press Conference.
24:19We will go back to that.
24:20And as we expected and that David Bull has been confirmed as the chairman replacing.
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