Reform Chairman Zia Yusuf says it was “dumb” for new Runcorn and Helsby MP Sarah Pochin to ask Starmer about banning the burqa at PMQs yesterday:
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. https://t.co/AUjwT8GqqD
— Zia Yusuf (@ZiaYusufUK) June 5, 2025
Shortly after Pochin asked her question (“will he in the interests of public safety follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others and ban the burqa?”) a party spokesman confirmed such a ban was not official policy. Reform chief whip Lee Anderson came out shortly after that to support one. And now deputy leader Richard Tice has said “it’s a sensible thing to talk about”…
Worthy of note is what party leader Nigel Farage said last night on his return to his GB News show – as ever, what Farage says is actually what matters in Reform. He essentially backed his new MP:
“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 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 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.“
As Reform rapidly grows in size, message clarity will become more difficult. Something the party is addressing in the professionalisation drive. Meanwhile, the Tories, the party most threatened with extinction from Reform, said nothing…
Lucy Powell on LBC, asked by Tom Swarbrick for her reaction to Labour MP Samantha Niblett’s call for a ‘summer of sex’ debate in Parliament: “I personally don’t own any sex toys, but each to their own… I’m not really sure that’s the right place for it, no.”