A SENIOR Reform UK officer has branded his party’s newest MP “dumb” for calling for a ban on the burka.
Zia Yusuf, the powerful chairman of Nigel Farage’s party, hit out at Runcorn and Helsby MP Sarah Pochin’s call at Prime Minister’s Questions this week for Muslim women to be banned from wearing full-face coverings.
Pochin’s question was dismissed on Wednesday by Keir Starmer but provoked outrage.
However, Reform has also distanced itself from the call, with a party spokesperson saying that banning the burka was “not party policy”.
Farage himself also refused to explicitly back Pochin’s demand, saying only that he thought there should be a wider debate about people wearing face coverings in public, “of which I see the burka being a part”.
Asked on Twitter/X about the party’s position by right-wing pundit Katie Hopkins – who insisted that a “burka ban MUST be party policy” – Yusuf (above) replied: “Nothing to do with me. Had no idea about the question nor that it wasn’t policy. Busy with other stuff.
“I do think it’s dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn’t do.”
It is not the first time that Reform UK high command has found itself at odds with its own MPs.
Rupert Lowe was removed from the party fold after backing mass deportations, with Yusuf and others alleging the Great Yarmouth MP was a bully.
Lowe called these complaints “vexatious” and said he had been culled because his hardline opinions put him at odds with Farage.
Pochin was approached for comment.
