Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith has defended his party leader Kemi Badenoch after she said employers should be permitted to ban burkas and face coverings in the workplace.
Griffith said while "the clunking fist of the law" should not be used to restrict clothing choices, workplace bosses should have the ability to set guidelines on what their employees wear.
Speaking to GB News, the Conservative MP explained: "I wouldn't use the clunking fist of the law to try and ban a particular type of dress.
"I think there are real concerns. And in spaces that are regulated, like the workplace, like members of parliament, surgeries, probably like Parliament itself, there's a role for whoever is regulating those spaces to decide what those dress codes are.
Andrew Griffith pushed back on the ban
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"Just as we have uniforms in school, many people at work wear a particular dress code or uniform.
"Of course, we all want to be able to look each other in the eye, in the face. But as a conservative liberal, I don't think it's the job of the state to go around banning things, whether it's a particular dress code, whether it's a type of advert on television."
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Badenoch had earlier outlined her position on face coverings, revealing she maintains a strict policy at her own constituency surgeries.
"If you come into my constituency surgery, you have to remove your face covering, whether it's a burka or a balaclava," the Conservative leader stated.
She added: "I'm not talking to people who are not going to show me their face, and I also believe that other people should have that control."
The Tory leader argued that employers should possess the authority to implement similar restrictions on staff wearing burkas and other face coverings in workplace settings.
WATCH: Nigel Farage says face coverings in public ‘don’t make sense’ as he reacts to Sarah Pochin’s burka demand
At Prime Minister’s Questions last week, Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin challenged Keir Starmer on whether he supports a ban on the burka.
She asked: “Given the Prime Minister's desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he, in the interests of public safety, follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others and ban the burka?"
Rather than addressing the question directly, Starmer sidestepped the issue. He instead criticised Reform UK’s platform and highlighted that Pochin had previously served as a Conservative MP during Liz Truss’s controversial mini-budget.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has declared that employers should have the authority to prohibit staff from wearing burkas and other face coverings at workGETTY
A spokesman for Reform UK clarified that while a burka ban is not official party policy, the issue warrants a national conversation, which they said is exactly the kind of discussion Parliament should be hosting.
Public opinion surveys have repeatedly shown that a large majority of voters in Britain back a ban on the burka.
For instance, a 2018 Sky News poll revealed that 59 per cent of respondents supported prohibiting the Islamic face covering, while only 26 per cent were opposed.
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