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Employers should be able to ban burqas in the workplace, Kemi Badenoch has argued, further inflaming the row over the issue ignited by Reform UK last week.
The Conservative leader also claimed she wouldn’t let people into her constituency surgeries if they wore face veils, saying she has “strong views about face coverings”.
However, she argued there were bigger issues around integration in Britain that should be addressed before legislating on face coverings.
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It comes after a row over calls to ban the burqa triggered a spat within Reform UK, and led to party chairman Zia Yusuf quitting his role and then returning to party leadership less than 48 hours later.
“If you were to ask me where you start with integration – sharia courts, all of this nonsense sectarianism, things like first-cousin marriage – there’s a whole heap of stuff that is far more insidious and that breeds more problems”, she told The Telegraph.
“My view is that people should be allowed to wear whatever they want, not what their husband is asking them to wear or what their community says that they should wear…
“If you come into my constituency surgery, you have to remove your face covering, whether it’s a burka or a balaclava.
“I’m not talking to people who are not going to show me their face, and I also believe that other people should have that control. Organisations should be able to decide what their staff wear; it shouldn’t be something that people should be able to override.”
But Mrs Badenoch added: “France has a ban and they have worse problems than we do in this country on integration. So banning the burka clearly is not the thing that’s going to fix things.”
Mr Yusuf announced plans to quit as chairman after describing the party’s newest MP Sarah Pochin – who won last month’s Runcorn and Helsby by-election– as “dumb” after she challenged Sir Keir Starmer over the legality of women wearing the burqa in the UK during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
In a statement, Mr Yusuf – who is a practicing Muslim – said he no longer believes “working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time”.
But speaking to The Times on Saturday alongside Mr Farage, Mr Yusuf said his decision to quit was an “error”.
“When I pushed that tweet out it was a coming together of a bit of exhaustion and a feeling that all I got in return for it was abuse”, he said.
“I was doing so many things, in the foreground and in the background. Anybody who has been part of a high-growth start-up outside of politics will sympathise and empathise with that.
“What has happened since then is that I’ve been inundated with messages from Reform members and supporters, who were saying they were devastated and heartbroken and asking me to really reconsider my decision.”
The ex-chairman also clarified that he “did not resign because I have any strong views about the burqa itself.”
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But he admitted that he felt blindsided by Ms Pochin’s decision to ask about a ban at PMQ’s, saying it was an “internal miscommunication issue”.
While Mr Yusuf’s formal title has not been decided, he is expected to lead Reform’s Elon Musk-inspired Doge unit, modelled on the Department of Government Efficiency set up by Donald Trump in the US.
Reform’s Doge UK team was set up to identify spending cuts in councils the party now controls and was formally launched this week.
Mr Yusuf will also oversee some aspects of policymaking, fundraising and media appearances for the party. A new party chair is expected to be appointed next week and a deputy chair will be hired too.
