Why has Reform UK found its members disagreeing over whether we should band the burka?

Sarah Pochin has raised an important point on the burka (Image: PA)

So Reform has got its political knickers in a twist over a row about whether we should ban the burka. But why the row? Of course we should ban it on the basis it’s misogynistic, it demeans women, and it has no place in a liberal, civilised society. Reform says banning it isn’t party policy – why not? A poll by the Express this week had 96% of people wanting it banned. And it’s not because they’re Islamophobic, it’s because the burka and the niqab are not just pieces of clothing – they’re symbols that promote a misogynistic ideology which erases women’s identities and renders them second-class citizens without a voice.

It makes my blood boil when I see a Muslim man in the street with his wife or “wives” walking five paces behind, faces covered looking cowed and subservient. Why the hell are we tolerating that in a country where men and women are equal, where they have an equal voice and there are laws to ensure that they do?

Why do we tolerate Sharia courts which are also tools to subjugate women and which allow Muslim men to literally disown their wives and throw them onto the street with nothing if they get bored of them.

This is not what Britain is about, so good on MP Sarah Pochin for throwing this very important issue into the political ring. And if we’re talking about blatant disrespect for women, you only had to look at the misogynist Starmer this week who point blank refused to answer her question about whether he’d consider banning it.

Instead, he looked at her like she was dog dirt on his shoe for daring to raise the issue. Then there were the screaming hyenas in Labour’s back benches who were laughing and scoffing at her question. Who are these morons who think a woman shouldn’t be allowed to ask a question about the subjugation of other women?

Thanks to Pochin, Reform now has a golden opportunity to take on an issue Labour is too gutless and too in thrall to Islamist leaders to take on. Because shutting down this discussion, as Starmer was desperate to do, is what happens in totalitarian societies – the kind of society Starmer so clearly wants here in Britain.

A national discussion on this won’t just help women, but also those primary school kids who are now being forced to wear them to school. These kids don’t have a choice. And I suspect neither do many Muslim women.

I heard one pro-burka woman this week say Islam doesn’t force people to do anything. Really? So why are 15 -year-old girls being forced into marriages they don’t want? Why are children still having their genitals mutilated in the name of religion, so they can’t enjoy sex? Why are there so-called honour killings here in Britain where young girls are murdered by their own families because they won’t conform?

As for those Islamists who trot out the trope that they’re only following the orders of the Holy Book – that’s rubbish. Nowhere in the Quran does it say women’s faces have to be covered. That’s a diktat fabricated by men to keep women in line.

And how dare the harpies say banning the burka would be Islamophobic. How is it when at least ten Muslim-majority countries have already done it (along with the niqab) because they say they’re now a foreign concept to their countries and don’t represent them.

So, if they can ban it – why the hell can’t we at least have a discussion about banning it? Reform’s Muslim chairman Zia Yusuf has resigned in a fit of pique over Pochin’s question which he took to Twitter to say was “dumb”. Which kind shows the misogynist lurking in him too. So good riddance to a bloke who thinks a woman concerned about the issues that affect other women is “dumb”.

Gender equality is an inalienable right in this country and anyone who opposes that should shove off and live somewhere else. And, yes, I could talk about the security aspects of it too.

We’re currently under threat from radical Islam and anyone who wanted to hurt us could do so under cover of a burka. I could also talk about the fact it’s been banned in many parts of Europe precisely to counter the extremist interpretation of Islam.

But for me, for now, this is about women and the life they get to live in Britain. Which shouldn’t be under the cover of a black veil which effectively cages them.