Overview
- Speaking in Renfrewshire after her autocue froze, Pochin said she had wanted to appear in a 'Reform tartan burqa', drawing immediate criticism.
- Labour condemned the remark and pointed to her past comments about TV adverts featuring Black and Asian people, which she previously apologised for.
- Last year Pochin used her first PMQs question to urge a national burqa ban on public-safety grounds, a move Reform’s chair Zia Yusuf called 'dumb'.
- A party spokesman has said a burqa ban is not official policy, though Yusuf recently backed prohibiting all face coverings in public if in power.
- Reform’s London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham has said she would seek to ban the burqa and suggested face covering implies criminal intent, prompting rebukes from Baroness Shaista Gohir.