Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf has slammed the Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake for using what he called “dangerous” and “politically illiterate” rhetoric after millions of Reform supporters were effectively branded “Nazis”.

Reform’s party leader Nigel Farage posted a black-and-gold Reform emblem online to promote a collector’s edition football shirt.

In reply, Mr Hollinrake shared a picture of the “Golden Party Badge” an award issued to the first 100,000 people who joined Hitler’s Nazi Party.

The Tory chairman then proceeded to delete the image, before soon re-sharing a link to the Wikipedia page about the badge.

Speaking about this on GB News, head of policy of Reform UK Mr Yusuf fumed: “The Tories have spent now the entire time since the general election saying that they’ve changed and we should look past the fact that they basically ran an open borders experiment in this country for 14 years.

“We should look past the fact that they let in north of 100,000 illegal migrants, never left the ECHR, essentially governed like globalists.

“Now you have, as you said, the chairman of the party not an undistinguished backbencher the chairman of the party has just equated Reform UK, and therefore people who support Reform, the millions of people across the country.

“That means that they’ve basically joined parties like the Green Party. And as Polanski frequently refers to us as fascists.

“And one of the really dangerous things about this is that I speak to too many Reform activists, I speak to too many Reform candidates and volunteers who were threatened and indeed sometimes sadly attacked because they have been whipped up by this sort of appalling language.

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“It was not that long ago, of course, that Charlie Kirk was assassinated, in no small part because of extremely dangerous rhetoric.

“I mean, he was also labelled with these sort of slurs. It’s deeply offensive, by the way, to the untold millions whose lives were destroyed by the Nazis.

“So I’m sorry if he thought it was a joke. It’s certainly not funny.

“And the fact that he took it down and then put it back up again, and it remains there, tells you everything you need to know about the fact that this is now clearly the official and endorsed view of the Tory Party.”

He added: “The Tories are floundering, and the fact that they think the way to win back voters who have fled the Tory Party to Reform is by calling them Nazis is beyond me.”

Reform said the Tory chairman’s post showed “what the Tories really think of anyone voting for Reform” and questioned whether Kemi Badenoch would condemn her chairman.

Mr Farage added: “This is why they are on course to win 14 seats at the next election.”

The dispute broke out on the eve of Reform’s first appearance at the Confederation of British Industry’s annual conference, the UK’s largest business gathering.

The dispute broke out on the eve of Reform’s first appearance at the Confederation of British Industry’s annual conference, the UK’s largest business gathering.

Rain Newton-Smith, the CBI’s chief executive, said in the summer that the lobby group was “absolutely” talking to Reform – which she dubbed “an important force in our politics”.

A CBI spokeswoman, meanwhile, said: “The CBI’s role is to engage with, scrutinise and challenge all political parties on behalf of business.

“That means hearing directly from a broad range of voices at our events, including annual conference.

“With speakers from Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and Reform, delegates will hear from a broad cross-section of political parties to hear their views on enterprise and the economy.”