Reform UK split over burqa ban as chairman labels stance ‘dumb’

An apparent split has emerged within Reform UK after the party’s newest MP, Sarah Pochin, called for a ban on burqas in Britain “in the interests of public safety”.

The MP, who won the recent Runcorn and Helsby by-election with a margin of just six votes over Labour, asked her first question at PMQs on Wednesday. She called on the prime minister to “follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others” in banning the burqa.

The intervention prompted audible disquiet from MPs across the chamber. In response, Keir Starmer said he would not follow the Reform UK MP “down that line”.

Despite Pochin’s question and the immediate endorsement of the Reform MP for Ashfield, Lee Anderson, a spokesperson clarified that support for a ban is “not party policy”.

A Reform spokesperson said that banning the burqa was “not party policy, but it needs a national debate, which is what the House is for”.

Zia Yusuf, the Reform UK chairman, has now appeared to dismiss Pochin’s intervention as “dumb”, questioning why the MP would ask the prime minister about “something the party itself wouldn’t do.”

Responding to accusations on social media that he was behind the spokesperson’s comment distancing the party from Pochin’s position, Yusuf said: “Nothing to do with me.”

In a post to X (formerly Twitter), he added: “Had no idea about the question nor that it wasn’t policy. [I am] 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.”

Yusuf’s intervention came after Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, appeared to back his newest MP.

Speaking on the show he hosts for GB News on Wednesday evening, Farage argued “we do deserve a debate” about banning face coverings in public places.

He said: “There are many, many, many countries in the world that are banning the burqa, but I think it goes further than that — you see Sarah [Pochin] said ‘in the interest of public safety’.

“I was at Aberdeen on Monday — there was a mob there to meet me, an organisation called Antifa and half of them had complete face coverings on so they would be unidentifiable. I don’t think face coverings in public places make sense and I think we do deserve a debate about that of which I see the burqa as being a part.”

Lee Anderson was the first Reform MP to express his support for his parliamentary colleague. Taking to social media after PMQs, Anderson told his followers: “Ban the burqa? Yes we should. No one should be allowed to hide their identity in public.”

Richard Tice MP, who serves as the party’s deputy leader, has also called for a “national debate” on banning the burqa.

In an interview with TalkTV on Thursday morning, Tice was asked to clarify if it is Reform UK policy to ban the burqa.

Reform’s deputy leader insisted it was “brilliant” that Pochin asked her question in the House of Commons.

Tice said: “Let’s have a national debate — and it was brilliant from Sarah to come forward, as a woman, to say that she thinks it’s a safety issue, and I think the first thing is to educate people.

“Most people wouldn’t be aware that in France, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Bulgaria, Norway, Switzerland and Luxembourg, there is a full burqa ban — so if other nations have come to that conclusion, in the Europe that Keir Starmer is so attached to, then maybe we should have a national conversation about it in a respectful way, and find out where people are.

“And indeed, we want to find out where our own membership is on this, and so let’s have a debate, find out as a nation where people are at [and] what people think about it, look at what’s working elsewhere, understand more about the issue, and then you come to a sort of a consensus view.”

He added: “My view is it [the burqa] is a repressive garment that makes women second-class citizens. I think it’s a misogynistic thing…

“I suspect that many women who wear the burqa would rather not wear the burqa, but let’s hear from them, and let’s have that debate, and there may be some who actually are very happy wearing it.

“So I just think it’s a sensible thing to talk about in a country that’s founded in Christianity.”

In his reply to Pochin in the commons on Wednesday, Starmer urged the new Reform MP to “tell her party leader [Nigel Farage]” that his economic plans would be “Liz Truss all over again”.

The prime minister said: “Now she is here and safely in her place perhaps she could tell her new party leader that his latest plan to bet £80 billion of unfunded tax cuts, no idea how he is going to pay for it, is Liz Truss all over again.

“Although considering I think she was a Conservative member when Liz Truss was leader she probably won’t.”

Pochin served as a Conservative councillor on Cheshire East Council from 2015 to 2023.