I find women in burkas ‘extremely intimidating’, says Reform deputy Thomas Kerr

Reform UK Scotland’s deputy leader has said he finds the burka “extremely intimidating”.

Thomas Kerr said Muslim women should not be allowed to wear niqabs and burkas publicly in a “Christian nation”.

In a sit-down interview with the Press Association, at a pub in the east end of Glasgow, Mr Kerr also claimed the burka was a security risk.

Reform has brought two debates to Holyrood in recent weeks calling for all face-coverings to be banned, although their motion last week only mentioned the burka and niqab specifically by name.

About one in 100 of Scottish Muslim women are estimated to wear burkas or niqabs.

The calls have provoked a furious response from other parties, with First Minister John Swinney among those accusing the party of racism.

Mr Kerr rejected the label, arguing that 24 countries – including EU nations such as France and Denmark – already ban the burka, accusing his pro-EU opponents of hypocrisy.

Mr Kerr, seen as a potential future leadership successor to Malcolm Offord, said the burka had no place in modern Scotland.

He told PA: “I think it is intimidating for somebody to be happy to walk down the street and keep wearing full-face coverings and I don’t care if it’s a balaclava or a burka.

“I just find it extremely intimidating. I don’t think it’s right. I find it very, very wrong that in our society, in this day and age, that people can walk around and make sure that their faces aren’t seen. I think that’s wrong.”

Pressed on why he thought the burka should be banned, he said: “I think that we are in a Christian nation which is built on Christian values.

“I think that if you’re going to integrate in our society properly, then you should live by the rules that we have, and that means learning the language, that means speaking how we speak, that means integrating properly with our society.

“It’s not within our values, it’s not within our respectful rules to be having (people) walking around in face coverings.”

The MSP claimed that “when you are covering your entire face, it becomes a security risk because you never know who is behind that”.

Mr Kerr said he and his party was in favour of banning all face coverings in public, including balaclavas.

He insisted he was not targeting Muslim women, but instead highlighting “the hypocrisy in the political establishment.”

He said politicians were too quick to penalise young, working-class men who are angry about migration and hide their faces to avoid repercussions from employers or “Stand Up to Racism and other far-left thugs who will put them all over social media”.

Mr Kerr also defended his frequent use of terms including “strangers”, “invaders” and “fighting-age men” to describe migrants arriving in the UK.

“I use the language that people who speak to me here in the East End of Glasgow use,” he said. “I don’t know what else you would call hundreds of young men coming across the English Channel other than an invasion of our borders.”

Asked directly if his rhetoric was designed to make the issue sound scarier than it is, the Reform deputy leader replied: “There’s nothing scarier than hundreds of young, fighting-age men coming to your country who you don’t know.

“There’s nothing scarier than seeing the city that you love changing dramatically overnight. There’s nothing scarier than seeing Glasgow city centre becoming lawless, or seeing people being housed over your own kids.”

Mariam Ahmed, chief executive of Amina – The Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, said Mr Kerr’s views on the burka are misogynistic and racist.

She told PA: “Twice the Parliament have debated what a woman should wear and that should not be important.

“There’s already a steep rise in Islamophobia, hatred towards Muslim women who wear even just hijabs, and these policies that Thomas Kerr keeps bringing in are misogynistic and racist as well.

“He has consistently called (the burka) a medieval garment, which I think is quite rude and quite racist.

“This can be a piece of clothing that a woman wants to wear.

“Ultimately, we want women to have the choice to wear what they want, but as politicians, we need to be asking ourselves: seriously what are the real issues and the real debates that are impacting the people of Scotland? I would say this is not it.”

Ms Ahmed urged politicians at Holyrood to instead focus on issues such as housing, women’s safety, the economy and the cost of living.

Green MSP Kate Nevens said: “Nobody will seriously believe that Thomas Kerr is genuinely intimidated by women wearing burkas or niqabs.

“We can all see exactly what he’s doing, and there is nothing remotely original or subtle about it.

“He is reaching for the same tired, divisive and racist playbook that has been used by generations of politicians who have sought to exploit people’s fears, stoke prejudice and turn communities against one another.

“We saw it with Enoch Powell, we saw it with the BNP and UKIP and now we’re seeing it from Thomas Kerr and Reform.

“We saw it when they chose to bring this debate in the first place, and when they chose to fight an election based on dog whistles, stereotypes and branding any refugee or migrant who isn’t white as a stranger.”

Ms Nevens said Reform’s Holyrood debate on face coverings was “another desperate, cynical and deeply irresponsible attempt to manufacture division for political gain”.

She went on: “I don’t believe that we should be a country where politicians target minorities and try to tell women what to wear.

“The public deserves better than Kerr’s consistent and transparent attempts to scapegoat, smear marginalised groups and stoke Islamophobia, racism, misogyny and division.”