The message Zia Yusuf wanted to send was clear. With a backdrop of the City of London behind him, from the 34th floor of the Shard, the Reform UK chair laid out an economic policy designed to show his party meant business.
In a briefing over a full English breakfast for some of the nation’s journalists on Friday morning, Yusuf reiterated an announcement the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, had made overnight from another hotel 5,000 miles away in Las Vegas: the party would now accept donations in bitcoin, and if elected to power would make tax and regulatory changes to bolster Britain’s adoption of cryptocurrency.
As far as settings go for a press conference, commanding views over St Paul’s Cathedral and the banks and asset managers of the Square Mile, it is straight out of the Westminster playbook, even if the policy idea is pure Donald Trump.
However, the trouble with Yusuf’s message to the City was not the questionable…
