Member News
The leader of the UK Independence Party has said "quite a lot" of Muslim women support a ban on the burqa.
Lord Pearson told Jon Sopel on the BBC Campaign Show that the women "can't be discovered" voting for Ukip "by their menfolk under Sharia law".
The party's manifesto promises to "tackle extremist Islam by banning the burqa or veiled niqab in public buildings and certain private buildings".
A policy document on the Ukip website explains that "people will be required to have uncovered faces in all public buildings and premises" and "private organisations, businesses, and institutions will be given the option of imposing the same rule, that faces must be uncovered, in their buildings, premises and conveyances".
Lord Pearson also defended his party's view that building societies and banks should self-regulate themselves responsibly in the future without government interference in order to avoid a future repeat of the current recession.
"The cowboy type activities which we've seen which should clearly be in a separate category and we wouldn't see the building societies and the high street banks in that category at all," he said.
"And we don't see why they shouldn't regulate themselves as they actually have done perfectly adequately for quite a long time."
Lord Pearson was also vague on other issues set out in the Ukip manifesto, saying: "I haven't come here to deal with the minutiae".
Ukip has 12 MEPs and is fielding candidates in more than 500 constituencies at the general election, but is not expected to win any seats.
Article Comments
Some laws are necessary for a country's security. However, banning something like the burqa may not be the most effective initiative to fortify security measures. All it would do is hurt the sentiments of a community that is now forced to abide by the law and perhaps go against its own beliefs in the process. http://www.lawisgreek.com/burqas-in-belgium/
Arvind Singh
23rd Apr 2010 at 9:12 am
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.