Reform UK: Zia Yusuf hits back at ‘far left’ non-dom policy critics
Reform UK’s DOGE chief has hit back at criticisms of the party’s newly-unveiled ‘Robin Hood’ non-doms policy from tax experts, which he described as “drivel”.
In a ten-post thread on X, Zia Yusuf embarked on a detailed critique of tax commentator Dan Neidle, after the Tax Policy Associates founder said that there were “several significant problems” with the plan.
The policy would involve a £250,000 one-off “landing fee”, known as the ‘Brittania Card’ for non-doms to qualify for tax exemptions.
And that tax revenue would be distributed between around 2.5m workers earning less than £23,000, who would be given £600 each – that’s based on 6,000 non-doms taking part in the scheme.
Neidle said that the scheme would “discourage highly skilled professionals from moving here”.
Yusuf described Neidle as a “far left political activist” who is “poisoning the discourse in this country”.
Promising to “get our economy motoring again”, Yusuf said that Reform’s policy would “halt the exodus and in fact reverse it”.
He dismissed Neidle’s critiques around the up-front cost and uptake, along with his claims that the policy would result in a £34bn in lost tax revenue over five years.
Neidle told City AM: “It’s disappointing to see Reform UK respond to our report with childish insults. We received an advance copy of their paper and our response reflects an analysis from our team of economists and private wealth experts.”
Tax expertise or student politics?
Yusuf insisted that “Reform’s policies will drive a big increase in tax revenue, driven by tens of thousands more of the world’s biggest wealth creators coming here, paying billions in taxes beyond the Britannia Card fee”.
“The fact he published his long thread before our 12 page policy document had even been published is a clue that this was not a dispassionate economic assessment, but naked political activism.”
He added: “The answer is, of course, that the hair-brained student politician policies of the likes of Rachel Reeves and Dan Neidle, make British people much, much poorer.”
Standing at 1,056 words, this thread is around a fifth of the length of the entire policy document that sparked the debate in the first place.
Yusuf briefly stepped down as Reform chairman earlier in June, before returning to the party days later – in a new role to spearhead the party’s replica of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
He signed off the post with: “We can’t wait to make Britain prosperous and powerful again.”