4:13pm Tuesday 9th February 2010
Banning women from wearing the burka on the streets of Britain would be a waste of police time, Justice Secretary Jack Straw said today.
He told MPs he did not think police should be instructed to remove the garments from women who wore them for “religious or cultural reasons”.
Mr Straw, who has in the past raised concerns about Muslim women wearing the veil, said he would “strongly recommend against a change in the law”.
At Commons question time he said: “All of us may have views about the wearing of the burka, but I do not believe that this is a matter which should be the subject of the criminal law in which we were expecting the police to remove these items of apparel from women who choose for religious or cultural reasons to wear them.
”That should have no part of the system of law in the United Kingdom.”
Tory MP Philip Hollobone (Kettering) last week said he had “huge sympathy” with those who backed a ban on the face-covering veil in public places, claiming it was the religious equivalent of “going round with a paper bag over your head”.
A recent ComRes poll in the Independent newspaper found a third of Britons want to see an outright ban on the wearing of burka in public, and two thirds believe wearing it should be illegal in places such as banks and airports.
The UK Independence Party has called for an outright ban, saying the wearing of the burka is helping create a “divided society”.
It is the only party to argue for a total ban after the British National Party called for the burka to be banned in schools.
The subject has sparked intense debate in France and the country’s highest court has been asked to help draft a law banning the full Islamic veil.
It follows a report in the French parliament which called for a ban on the burka and niqab, arguing Muslim women who fully cover their heads and faces are mounting an “unacceptable” challenge to the country’s values.
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