{"id":12972,"date":"2026-01-16T17:30:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=12972"},"modified":"2026-01-16T17:30:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:30:04","slug":"reform-uks-london-mayor-candidate-condemned-for-burqa-stop-and-search-remarks-reform-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=12972","title":{"rendered":"Reform UK\u2019s London mayor candidate condemned for burqa stop and search remarks | Reform UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Reform UK\u2019s mayoral candidate for London has been accused of endangering Muslims after she said women wearing the burqa should be subject to stop and search.<\/p>\n

Laila Cunningham, who was announced as Reform\u2019s candidate<\/a> for the 2028 mayoral elections last week, said no one should cover their face \u201cin an open society\u201d, adding: \u201cIt has to be assumed that if you\u2019re hiding your face, you\u2019re hiding it for a criminal reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham told the Standard 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

The former prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, herself a British-born Muslim of Egyptian descent, has been subject to Islamophobic abuse<\/a> since it was announced that she would lead the rightwing party\u2019s local election campaign in London.<\/p>\n

The Labour peer Shaista Gohir, who is the chair of Muslim Women\u2019s Network UK, called her comments \u201cdangerous\u201d and a \u201cdog whistle\u201d to racists, and said they would further alienate Muslim women, including the minority who wear a burqa.<\/p>\n

Gohir said her charity had been forced to remove the signage outside its offices and the picture profiles of staff because of a sharp rise in the number of abusive and threatening letters and emails it had received. \u201cWe\u2019ve had letters sent about grooming gangs saying all Muslims are scum, Muslims are filth,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is hateful stuff, so obviously people are fearful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gohir added that despite Cunningham\u2019s background she was \u201csending a message to Muslims 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

She said: \u201cThe number of Muslim women who wear the burqa in this country is tiny, and yet [Cunningham] has chosen to focus on that instead of the NHS, schools or the cost of living. Is she going to get the police to arrest wealthy burqa-wearing visitors in Harrods, or is it just women in Whitechapel?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Khan said it was the job of a mayor to bring people together, not sow division.<\/span> Photograph: Yui Mok\/PA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking on LBC after the comments, Sadiq Khan<\/a>, London\u2019s mayor, said figures \u201ctrying to sow seeds of division\u201d was nothing new and that it was the job of a mayor to bring people together.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost without argument, our city is the greatest city in the world because of our diversity,\u201d he said. \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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afzal Khan, the Labour MP for Manchester Rusholme, called Cunningham\u2019s comments a \u201cdeliberate and cynical ploy\u201d, adding: \u201cThis is all about divisive ideas being pumped into the society deliberately for electoral benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to research that Boris Johnson\u2019s comments comparing veiled Muslim women to letterboxes<\/a> led to a surge in anti-Muslim attacks and incidents of abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are consequences for the word that politicians use,\u201d Khan said. \u201cWhat anyone wears is no business of the state or the politicians. Individuals have the freedom to choose.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue of the veil has been a difficult one for Reform. Last July Reform\u2019s Zia Yusuf described a question from its Reform MP Sarah Pochin calling for a burqa ban as \u201cdumb\u201d<\/a>, as it was not party policy. On Friday, he reposted Cunningham\u2019s interview on X.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Reform #UKs #London #mayor #candidate #condemned #burqa #stop #search #remarks #Reform<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reform UK\u2019s mayoral candidate … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12972"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}