Reform UK<\/a>\u2019s mayoral candidate for London has been condemned<\/a> after saying that women who wear the burqa<\/a> in public should be subject to stop and search. <\/p>\n Laila Cunningham<\/a>, who will be Reform\u2019s candidate in the capital\u2019s election in 2028, sparked<\/a> a significant backlash after telling the Standard that she would act to ban the wearing of the religious garment in public. <\/p>\n \u201cIt has to be assumed that if you\u2019re hiding your face, you\u2019re hiding it for a criminal reason,\u201d she said, without providing evidence. <\/p>\n Cross-bench peer Baroness Shaista Gohia hit out at the Reform candidate, telling the Guardian her comments were \u201cdangerous\u201d and a \u201cdog whistle\u201d to racists.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n (PA)<\/p>\n Baroness Gohir, who is the CEO of the Muslim Women\u2019s Network UK, told the newspaper her charity has been forced to remove signage outside its offices and picture profiles of staff because of a sharp rise in the number of abusive and threatening letters and emails. <\/p>\n She said Ms Cunningham was \u201csending a message to Muslims<\/a> that they do not belong\u201d and \u201cemboldening people who already abuse Muslims and influencing those people who are reading this misinformation\u201d.<\/p>\n Reform UK\u2019s leader, Nigel Farage, has previously been accused by more than 20 former school pupils at Dulwich College of making \u201cracist, antisemitic and fascist\u201d remarks as a pupil.<\/p>\n Ms Cunningham, a British-born Muslim and the daughter of first-generation immigrants from Egypt also told The Standard\u2019s podcast: \u201cIf you go to parts of London<\/a>, it does feel like a Muslim city. The signs are written in a different language. You\u2019ve got burqas being sold in markets.\u201d She said there should be \u201cone civic culture\u201d and it \u201cshould be British\u201d.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Sadiq Khan criticised Ms Cunningham\u2019s comments (PA)<\/p>\n Asked about the Reform candidate\u2019s comments on LBC on Friday, London<\/a> Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan<\/a> said political figures were \u201ctrying to sow seeds of division.\u201d<\/p>\n He said: \u201cAlmost without argument, our city is the greatest in the world because of our diversity… Why would you stop somebody practising their religion? <\/p>\n \u201cI mean, how far back do you want to go in terms of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and so forth? These are quintessentially British rights that we\u2019re so proud of.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are two types of politicians: those that play on people\u2019s fears, and those that address people\u2019s fears.\u201d<\/p>\n Following Ms Cunningham\u2019s proposals to ban the burka in public, Sir Sadiq said women should have the \u201cfreedom to choose\u201d what to wear. <\/p>\n Afzal Khan, the Labour MP for Manchester Rusholme, told the Guardian that Ms Cunningham\u2019s comments were a \u201cdeliberate and cynical ploy\u201d. <\/p>\n He added: \u201cThis is all about divisive ideas being pumped into the society deliberately for electoral benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n A Reform spokesman said: \u201cReform UK believes stop and search powers are essential in tackling the London\u2019s escalating law and order problem. We also believe police should not have to worry about being accused of being prejudiced when carrying out these duties.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-702277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115910938757299108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Reform-UK-press-conference-gx9p2p3i.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Sadiq](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Sadiq-Khan-on-LBC-7gtz70vs.jpeg\")
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