Reform UK chairman calls Farage’s latest MP ‘dumb’ over burqa ban calls | EUROtoday

The chairman of Reform UK has appeared to model the occasion’s latest MP “dumb” for asking Sir Keir Starmer to introduce a burqa ban.

Sarah Pochin, the brand new Runcorn and Helsby MP, used her first PMQs query to name on the prime minister to ban burqas “in the interest of public safety”.

She stated: “Given the prime minister’s desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he, in the interest of public safety, follow the lead of France, Belgium, Denmark and others and ban the burqa?”

Sir Keir welcomed Ms Pochin to the Commons, however stated “I am not going to follow her down that line”.

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Now, Reform chair Zia Yusuf has stated it was “dumb for a party to ask the prime minister if they would do something the party itself wouldn’t do”.

He stated he “had no idea about the question nor that it wasn’t [Reform] policy”.

A Reform spokesman later clarified that banning burqas was not occasion coverage, sparking calls from the far-right for Mr Farage to undertake the proposals.

Mr Yusuf’s feedback are solely the most recent pointer to infighting inside Reform’s ranks.

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Reform has already misplaced one MP for the reason that basic election, with Rupert Lowe having been pressured out amid an investigation into bullying claims and the occasion reporting him to the police over alleged threats made in the direction of Mr Yusuf. The investigation was later dropped with no additional motion taken.

That got here after he spoke out publicly in opposition to Mr Farage’s management of the occasion, accusing the arch-Brexiteer of getting “messianic” tendencies.

There has been infighting between Reform’s high staff and its councillors, too, with one quitting simply days after final month’s native elections with a brutal assault on Mr Farage.

Donna Edmunds, who was elected in Hodnet, in Shropshire, was initially suspended for writing on X, previously Twitter, that she was planning to defect from the occasion after the native elections.

She responded by quitting the occasion and warning that Mr Farage “must never be prime minister” and is a “terrible leader”.

Asked on Wednesday evening about Ms Pochin’s feedback on the burqa, Mr Farage stated he would welcome a broader debate about face coverings in public.

He advised GB News: “I think this debate, actually, goes beyond the burqa… I was in Aberdeen 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 debate about that, which I see the burqa as being a part.”

Reform UK and Ms Pochin had been contacted for remark.