'He's not racist': Robert Jenrick defends Zia Yusuf amid Labour candidate row

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Zia Yusuf, Reform UK's spokesperson for home affairs, said Labour had "foisted" a Somalian refugee on north London residents living in the Prime Minister's former constituency.

On Wednesday, Mr Yusuf wrote on X: "The front runner being foisted on the people of Holborn by Labour to replace the former Prime Minister Keir Starmer in our Parliament was born in Somalia.

"Do you understand what’s happening?"

Labour's front-runner to face Mr Polanski is Sagal Abdi-Wali, a Somalian refugee who fled to the UK as a child in the 1990s and currently runs Camden Council.

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Asked by LBC's Natasha Clark if Mr Yusuf's post was racist, Mr Jenrick said: "No".

Pushed on what he interpreted the comments to mean, he said Mr Yusuf was asking whether Ms Abdi-Wali would "always put this country first".

He said: "I don't know this person from Adam, but do they love our country? Will they always put British people first in the way that Reform would do?"

The MP for Newark added: "I have seen other people standing for election here in Birmingham who appear to put the interests of Pakistan first, talking about whether a new airport should be built in Mirpur rather than about the bin strike in Birmingham."

Asked whether a refugee arriving in Britain standing for Parliament was unable to put Britain first, he replied: "Not necessarily."

He added: "I just want to see Parliament filled with people who love our country and want to act in the best interests of our people.

"And where I sit in the House of Commons, behind me are Islamists who seem more interested in what's going on in Gaza and Pakistan than what's happening in Newark or Birmingham.

"And that worries me, worries me a great deal. And so we've got to make sure we do not go any further down this line of sectarian politics, that we just have true, decent, hard-working, patriotic Brits in our Parliament."

Green Party leader Mr Polanski has said he will stand in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election triggered when Sir Keir announced his resignation as an MP on Tuesday.

Sir Keir has previously said he would serve out the rest of his term.

Mr Jenrick also batted away suggestions of internal disunity within Reform's ranks, as the party gathers for its annual conference in Birmingham, insisting the party was "aligned in what this country needs".

"I've been in another political party that was riven with internal divisions, who should be leader...That doesn't happen in Reform."

It comes after the Tories overtook Reform UK for the first time in the polls on Wednesday.

Some 3,250 British voters were surveyed by More in Common in August, which found support for Kemi Badenoch stands at 23%.

It means their total vote share is just one point ahead of Reform and three points behind Labour.