“I do think it’s dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn’t do.”
Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf has made it clear that banning the burqa is not official party policy, and that he disagreed with Sarah Pochin’s burqa ban question at PMQs.
At PMQs yesterday, Pochin asked the prime minister if he would ban the burqa “in the interests of public safety”.
Her question was met with audible groans from across the chamber.
In a post on X, Yusuf said he had no idea Reform’s newest MP would ask Keir Starmer about banning the burqa at PMQs and described the question as “dumb”.
Far-right commentator Katie Hopkins tagged the Reform UK in a mocking post, in which she questioned whether Yusuf was behind a Reform spokesperson’s statement which said that the burqa ban is party policy.
Hopkins added that banning the burqa “must be party policy”.
The Reform UK chair responded: “Nothing to do with me. Had no idea about the question nor that it wasn’t policy. Busy with other stuff.
He added: “I do think it’s dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn’t do.”
After the MP for Runcorn and Helsby asked the question, a Reform spokesperson said that banning the burqa is “not party policy but it needs a national debate, which is what the House is for”.
In response to Pochin’s question, Starmer said he would not “follow her down that line”.
Lee Anderson endorsed Pochin’s question, while Farage has said the issue needs to be debated. Deputy leader of Reform Richard Tice called Pochin’s shocking question “brilliant”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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