Gay ex-TV host David Bull is Reform UK’s new chairman
David Bull hosted Most Haunted Live before entering politics. (Getty)
David Bull hosted Most Haunted Live before entering politics. (Getty)
Gay ex-TV presenter and former MEP David Bull has been named Reform UK’s new chairman, replacing Zia Yusuf who resigned last week.
Bull, a qualified doctor who presented Most Haunted Live! between 2002 and 2005, and is currently a host on TalkTV, has already held a number of roles within Reform as well as its predecessor, the Brexit Party.
Born in London, Bull moved to Suffolk as a child before studying medicine at Imperial College London. He began his media career in 1995 and went on to present Newsround, Watchdog and Tomorrow’s World, before moving into politics in 2006, when he was selected to run for the Conservatives in the Brighton Pavilion constituency.
Although he pulled out of that election, he became a member of the European parliament in 2019. In 2021, he took up the role of Reform UK’s deputy leader – the same year he faced a backlash for selling pricey HIV self-test kits, despite the fact that similar tests were available free on the NHS.
Speaking at a press conference in Westminster on Tuesday (10 June), party leader Nigel Farage said Bull would bring “terrific verve, energy, enthusiasm” to the right-wing party, and “give leadership to that volunteer army out there”.
Bull said he was deeply honoured to take on the job, telling Radio 5 Live: “Part of my role will be to go around and make sure I can keep morale high”.
His appointment comes a week after businessman Yusuf said getting the party into government was no longer a “good use of my time”. The decision came just days after newly elected Reform MP Sarah Pochin, who represents Runcorn and Helsby, in Cheshire, called on prime minister Keir Starmer to ban the burka, the full-body garment worn by some Muslim women, “in the interests of public safety”.
Yusuf, who labels himself a “British Muslim patriot”, branded calls for the ban “dumb”.
However, just two days later he returned to the party, to head up a cost-saving unit modelled on Elon Musk’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency in the US.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper labelled Bull’s appointment part of the “conveyor belt of Trump sycophants appointed by Nigel Farage”, and a Labour spokesperson called out his views on the NHS.
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