A row has broken out in Reform UK after its newest MP called on the prime minister to ban the burqa, with the party’s chair, Zia Yusuf, saying it was a “dumb” question given that was not party policy.
Sarah Pochin, who recently won the Runcorn and Helsby byelection, asked Keir Starmer in parliament on Wednesday: “Given the prime minister’s desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he in the interests of public safety follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others and ban the burqa?”
Her call was met with cries of “shame” from some MPs, and Reform later clarified it was not the party’s policy but that it could be part of a debate.
Nigel Farage, the party leader, also weighed in later on GB News, saying: “I don’t think face coverings in public places make sense, and we deserve a debate about this.”
However, Yusuf responded to the idea on X on Thursday suggesting the question should not have been asked.
“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,” he wrote.
A Reform spokesperson said Yusuf had not been criticising Pochin personally as he had said it was a “dumb” thing for a party to do, and that all parties contained people who took different positions on policy matters.
However, it is the latest sign of disharmony in Reform, months after Rupert Lowe, one of the party’s MPs, was booted out after a disagreement with Yusuf and Farage.
Lowe, who now sits as an independent, takes a more sympathetic approach to the far-right agitator Tommy Robinson and has a hardline view advocating mass deportation of people who have migrated to the UK illegally.
On Thursday, Lowe backed a burqa ban, saying: “The burqa is a political symbol: it represents a deeply patriarchal and unpleasant worldview that has no place in our society. We must defend the freedom of girls and women born into a culture where that suffocation isn’t a choice, but a rule. Let’s ban the burqa.”
The idea was also endorsed by Nick Timothy, a Tory MP and former chief of staff to Theresa May, who said on X: “The burqa is as British as Jeddah and yes it should be banned.”
