Kemi Badenoch has said she could support a national ban on the burka, but warned Reform UK that enforcing it would prove a costly nightmare for the police. Speaking out in the new debate for the first time, Ms Badenoch said there are more pressing priorities for enforcing integration between communities.
She cited a ban on sharia courts and first-cousin marriage as two examples that represent an “insidious” block on proper integration. The Conservative Party leader said she is not opposed to a ban on the Islamic face covering in general, but enforcing it would be a drain on police forces’ budgets. However she revealed she already enforces a ban on any face coverings in her Essex constituency surgery.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Ms Badenoch argued: “If you were to ask me where you start with integration – sharia courts, all of this nonsense sectarianism, things like first-cousin marriage – there’s a whole heap of stuff that is far more insidious and that breeds more problems.”
“My view is that people should be allowed to wear whatever they want, not what their husband is asking them to wear or what their community says that they should wear.”
“If you come into my constituency surgery, you have to remove your face covering, whether it’s a burka or a balaclava.
“I’m not talking to people who are not going to show me their face, and I also believe that other people should have that control.
“Organisations should be able to decide what their staff wear; it shouldn’t be something that people should be able to override.”
Ms Badenoch also pointed to France as an example of a country that has banned the burqa, but still has huge problems with integrating immigrants.
She concluded: “Banning the burka clearly is not the thing that’s going to fix things”.
While British law allows employers to set their own dress code rules, British law allows for employees to bring costly legal action against their bosses in the event they tried banning religious head or face coverings.
In 2007 a school in Dewsbury was taken to court by a Muslim teaching assistant after she was banned from wearing a niqab in the classroom.
Aishah Azmi, whose job was also to translate for non-English speaking pupils, had her case dismissed by a Leeds employment tribunal, but was awarded £1,000 for “injury to feelings”.
While the case was dismissed, taxpayers were threatened with a £250,000 bill as she vowed to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
This week Ms Badenoch vowed to leave the ECHR on the grounds it was providing Britain’s enemies with legal weaponry to undermine elected politicians.
In the same Telegraph interview, Ms Badenoch said she is ready to block any candidate from standing for her party in future if they refuse to support her campaign to leave the convention.