Reform UK row as birthday celebration chair labels new MP’s name for a burqa ban ‘dumb’

A row has damaged out in Reform UK after its latest MP referred to as at the high minister to prohibit the burqa, with that birthday celebration’s chair, Zia Yusuf, announcing it was once a “dumb” query for the reason that was once now not birthday celebration coverage.

Sarah Pochin, who lately gained the Runcorn and Helsby byelection, requested 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 name was once met with cries of “shame” from some MPs, and Reform later clarified it was once now not the birthday celebration’s coverage however that it might be a part of a debate.

Nigel Farage, the birthday celebration chief, additionally weighed in afterward GB News, announcing: “I don’t think face coverings in public places make sense, and we deserve a debate about this.”

However, Yusuf spoke back to the theory on X on Thursday suggesting the query will have to now not had been requested.

“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 stated Yusuf had now not been criticising Pochin for my part as he had stated it was once a “dumb” factor for a birthday celebration to do, and that each one events contained individuals who took other positions on coverage issues.

However, it’s the newest signal of disharmony in Reform, months after Rupert Lowe, probably the most birthday celebration’s MPs, was once booted out after a war of words with Yusuf and Farage.

Lowe, who now sits as an impartial, takes a extra sympathetic solution to the far-right agitator Tommy Robinson and has a hardline view advocating mass deportation of migrants who’ve arrived in the United Kingdom illegally.

On Thursday, Lowe subsidized a burqa ban, announcing: “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 concept was once additionally recommended by way of Nick Timothy, a Tory MP and previous leader of team of workers to Theresa May, who stated on X: “The burqa is as British as Jeddah and yes it should be banned.”