Kemi Badenoch says office managers should be able to ban women from wearing face coverings

By JADA BAS

Published: 01:46 BST, 8 June 2025 | Updated: 01:46 BST, 8 June 2025

Office managers should be able to ban employees from wearing burkas, Kemi Badenoch has said.

The Tory leader hit out at the Islamic traditional dress and said she had ‘strong views about face coverings’ and would not allow people into her constituency surgeries if they wore them.

Her remarks came after Reform’s chairman Zia Yusuf quit following a row over the subject after his colleague MP Sarah Pochin urged the Prime Minister to ban the burka ‘in the interests of public safety’- before rejoining on Saturday night.

Mrs Badenoch said Britain could enforce a ban on burkas but what needs to be addressed are pressing issues around integration.

She added that sharia courts and first-cousin marriage are an ‘insidious’ barrier to integration.

She said: ‘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.’

She added: ‘If you come into my constituency surgery, you have to remove your face covering, whether it’s a burka or a balaclava.

Bosses should be able to ban employees from wearing burkas, Kemi Badenoch has said.

Her remarks came after Reform’s chairman Zia Yusuf quit following a row over the subject after his colleague MP Sarah Pochin urged the Prime Minister to ban the burka ‘in the interests of public safety’

‘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.’

France is just one of a number of countries that have already banned the burka.

But Mrs Badenoch said: ‘France has a ban and they have worse problems than we do in this country on integration. So banning the burka clearly is not the thing that’s going to fix things.’ 

If employers started to tell staff to remove any religious clothing, they could face legal issues under equality and human rights laws on the grounds they were being discriminating.

An organisation would have to demonstrate its ban was for a legitimate reason, such as ensuring health and safety or enabling effective communication.

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Kemi Badenoch says office managers should be able to ban women from wearing face coverings

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