LONDON: A row has erupted within the right-wing British party Reform UK after its newest member of Parliament, Sarah Pochin, used her maiden question during Prime Minister\u2019s Questions on Wednesday to call for a nationwide ban on the burqa, it was reported on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The question prompted public criticism from Zia Yusuf, Reform UK\u2019s chairman, who rebuked the move, calling it a \u201cdumb\u201d question.<\/p>\n
Pochin, who recently won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, asked Prime Minister Keir Starmer whether the UK would follow European nations such as France, Belgium, and Denmark in banning the burqa \u201cin the interests of public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her remarks were met with audible disapproval from some MPs, with cries of \u201cshame\u201d heard in the chamber of the House of Commons.<\/p>\n
Lee Anderson, Reform UK\u2019s chief whip, expressed support for Pochin\u2019s suggestion, saying: \u201cBan the burqa? Yes we should. No one should be allowed to hide their identity in public.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Yusuf was less than supportive, writing on X: \u201cNothing to do with me. Had no idea about the question, nor that it wasn\u2019t policy. I do think it\u2019s dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Reform spokesperson later clarified that Yusuf had not been criticizing Pochin personally, but highlighting the inconsistency of raising a proposal not endorsed by the party.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson reiterated that a burqa ban was not official Reform UK policy but acknowledged it was an issue that \u201cdeserves national debate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nigel Farage, Reform UK\u2019s leader, speaking on GB News, was more cautious and distanced himself from an outright endorsement, but suggested public discomfort around face coverings warranted discussion.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pochin, a former Conservative councillor, later suggested her question had been sourced from public suggestions submitted online. \u201cThank you to everyone who sent in questions for the prime minister,\u201d she posted.<\/p>\n
The incident has reignited concerns about internal divisions within Reform UK. It comes just months after former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe was expelled from the party following a falling out with both Yusuf and Farage.<\/p>\n
Lowe, who has expressed hardline views on immigration and has backed calls to ban the burqa, now sits as an independent.<\/p>\n
Reform has also been plagued by tension at the grassroots level. Following the recent local elections, Donna Edmunds, a Shropshire councillor, resigned from the party in protest, describing Farage as a \u201cterrible leader\u201d and warning that he \u201cmust never be prime minister.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amid the latest fallout, a Labour spokesperson said: \u201cNigel Farage could fit all of his MPs in the back of a cab, yet he can\u2019t stop them fighting among themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reform UK and Sarah Pochin were approached by the BBC, The Guardian, and The Independent for further comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON: A row has erupted within the right-wing British party Reform UK after its newest member of Parliament, Sarah Pochin, used her maiden question during Prime Minister\u2019s Questions on Wednesday to call for a nationwide ban on the burqa, it was reported on Thursday. The question prompted public criticism from Zia Yusuf, Reform UK\u2019s chairman, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":82135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82128"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82136,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82128\/revisions\/82136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}