It's not the burka we need to ban, it's the balaclava

AS a Conservative, I'm uncomfortable with banning anything. I'm a great believer in freedom of choice. As long as your choices aren't harming anyone else, then I say live and let live. And recent debate around banning the burka in the UK, sparked by Reform UK's newest MP, Sarah Pochin — who won the recent Runcorn and Helsby by-election — has proved what a controversial topic the state-sanctioning of how we dress can be.

- Mieka Smiles

She asked Keir Starmer: “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 burka?”

This intervention sparked controversy, not least within Reform, with party chairman Zia Yusuf branding it a “dumb” question, before being slapped down by Nigel Farage, quitting, then returning in a lesser post.

Now, I think the burka is an oppressive and, to be brutally frank, weird garment. Margaret Atwood famously said that the red bonnet costumes in her chilling and dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale were inspired after witnessing women wearing them in Afghanistan.

IT’S not just a harmless religious garment. It’s a full face and body covering that isolates women, cuts off communication and is totally at odds with the integration we so desperately need in this country. However, although I can increasingly sympathise with those who want it banned, my instinct is to defend the right of those who choose — choose being the operative word here — to wear one if they feel it is a sign of their faith.