Nigel Farage has revealed he received just 10 minutes' warning before Zia Yusuf announced his resignation as Reform UK chairman on Thursday afternoon.

Speaking on GB News, the Reform leader said: "I was given a 10 minute warning that it was going to come."

Farage explained he had spoken to Yusuf on Wednesday morning and noticed he "did seem very, very disengaged". He added that after Reform MP Sarah Pochin asked a question about burqa bans in Parliament, Yusuf posted what Farage described as a "slightly intemperate tweet".

"I could tell reading that tweet. I just thought, 'he's not coming in tomorrow,'" Farage said.

NIgel Farage spoke about Zia Yusuf's departure

During the extensive GB News interview, Farage praised Yusuf's contributions to Reform UK's recent electoral success. "For 11 months, we've been pretty much inseparable. For 11 months, we've been working towards May 1st," he said.

The Reform leader highlighted Yusuf's technical expertise: "He's brilliant when it comes to data. He's brilliant when it comes to the technical side of things. He really is in a class of his own."

Farage suggested the pressures of political life had taken their toll. "It's 100 hours a week, it's seven days a week. It is totally unrelenting," he explained.

He also cited online abuse as a factor, noting that "X in particular, is full of vile trolls, particularly the alt right types, who have been just outright horrific towards Zia right from the very start."

Farage was full of praise for Yusuf

Farage revealed details of their final conversations, saying: "I spoke to him yesterday morning and I felt 'yeah he's really had enough of all of this.'"

The Reform leader believes Yusuf is "walking away from the whole political game, I suspect never to return." He drew comparisons with other businesspeople who have entered politics, noting: "There are many other businessmen before him who've come into the politics, and just decided at the end we don't want the aggro, they don't need the abuse."

"I don't think it's amicable from [Yusuf's] perspective," Farage admitted. "He probably feels what an ungrateful, fruitful, nasty business politics is."

Yusuf, 38, joined Reform after a successful business career that included founding luxury concierge service Velocity Black and working at Goldman Sachs. The son of Sri Lankan immigrants who came to Britain in the 1980s, he had told the Express in February of his ambitions to help make Farage prime minister.

"The reason why I do this," he had said, "and I do it as a volunteer and I do it with all my time - is because this country has been incredibly kind to me, to my family."

Farage must now find a replacement, telling GB News: "I've got to give [his replacement] some good, hard thought."