Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf is more than a bit full of himself. He likes to style himself Reform’s “Shadow Home Secretary”. He’s not. He’s Reform’s home affairs spokesperson, God help us all. ‘Shadow’ refers to the home affairs spokesperson of the party with second-most MPs in the Commons. For the moment, that’s still the Tories. But many would say he’s full of something else, too. That proposition is reinforced by the fact that today, 29 May 2026, he has decided he needs to pander to his racist base even further. In this case, by banning Sikhs from carrying the kirpan, the ceremonial dagger required of observant Sikhs to fulfil their religious obligations:
I don’t care what religion you are.
NOBODY other than law enforcement will get to carry deadly weapons under a Reform government.
Reform will repeal the exemption for Sikhs to carry the kirpan.
We will deploy stop and search and get deadly weapons off our streets.
— Zia Yusuf (@ZiaYusufUK) May 29, 2026
Reform’s race-baiting nonsense
Sikhs have been allowed to carry kirpans in the UK since at least Winston Churchill’s time — because he advocated for it out of a sense of Britain’s indebtedness to Sikhs, as respondents reminded Yusuf:
Sir Winston Churchill knew Sikhs better than you Yusuf. They can carry kirpans because he stood in Parliament and pleaded for the Sikhs to be given that recognition pic.twitter.com/wIGLWkua7X
— Man at C&A (@BeardedBrownMa1) May 29, 2026
And it’s not as if Sikhs have no need to be armed. Thick racists who would probably support Reform — though probably not the Muslim-born Yusuf — sometimes attack, even rape, Sikhs because they mistake their victims for Muslims who the political establishment loves to incite against. Yusuf’s excuse for his race-baiting would probably be the conviction of a man in Southampton this week for a knife murder. But Yusuf’s either too opportunistic or too challenged (both?) to admit that this wasn’t committed with a kirpan:
There is very little evidence of the kirpan being used in knife crime.
The one used in Southampton was not a regular kirpan, but a ‘shastar-style’ weapon – which is already illegal.
You’d be better off banning hammers.
But that wouldn’t stir up race-hate quite so much.— Larry Barker
(@Lazzard59) May 29, 2026
In fact, in the past half-century there hasn’t been a single kirpan-linked death in the UK. The single incident mentioned by one respondent also mistook the weapon-type — but he correctly identified the racism in the original post. Compare that to the around 50,000 offences annually involving non-Sikh’s and other types of knife:
Kirpan-related deaths in the UK in the last 50 years – 1 recent high-profile case.
Meanwhile there are 49,000–53,000 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument per year in recent periods.
Absolute clown party with no answers, just dog whistling retarded racists. pic.twitter.com/Hq11wqlY4C
— ☬ #RefugeesWelcome; Twitting Dinosaur
(@TwitDinosaur) May 29, 2026
And, of course, there are a lot more people allowed to legally carry dangerous weapons than Sikhs:
Ok- are you going to ban tradespeople from carrying Stanley knives, hammers etc in case they decide to use it with an intent to injure. You do come out with rubbish .
— Kentish Maid (@obviousenigma1) May 29, 2026
Many ventured that Yusuf’s racist grandstanding was driven by fear of even more extreme right-wing parties that are eating away at Reform’s ‘base’ (‘base’ being very appropriate in this instance):
Wow what an original thought, like your party’s signature color that suddenly changed to dark blue! pic.twitter.com/YjWAdvXJpE
— Naomi Seibt (@NaomiSeibt) May 29, 2026
‘Disgrace’
Yusuf was coming off the back of his illegal threat to put immigration concentration camps in areas that voted Green in May’s local elections. Gaining votes through incentives or coercison is a crime. And his latest post was similarly treated with utter contempt by most who responded:
— Steve Yeardley (@yodelmiester) May 29, 2026
Lots of contempt:
You are a disgrace for trying to inflame tensions against Sikhs lawfully carrying a kirpan!
This isn’t serious policy; it’s legal and constitutional nonsense.
The kirpan is a long-recognised religious article protected under the Equality Act 2010 and Article 9 of the ECHR.
— Nikki (@gllnkk) May 29, 2026
Lots and lots:
Oh will you big boy ?
Isn’t it more the case you’ve discovered a new part of society to demonise in Sikhs so you can carry on your fake patriotism grandstanding.
— Oxidized Iron (@OxidizedIron33) May 29, 2026
But not quite the contempt it deserved. The X platform isn’t big enough to hold that much contempt.
Featured image via Carl Court/Getty Images
By Skwawkbox
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