Sarah Pochin reveals why she thinks Keir Starmer ‘dodged’ bombshell Burqa PMQs probe: ‘They don't want this’

Starmer responded by saying “I’m not going to follow her down that line” before hitting out at her party leader, Nigel Farage.

Speaking on GB News, Pochin criticised the PM for not responding directly to her question.

“The issue of national security and the issue of cultural integration, two separate issues but both critical issues we are facing as a country at the moment”, she told Martin Daubney.

“The Prime Minister very recently talked about this country being an island of strangers and here we are today, I gave him an opportunity today to debate this in the House, which is exactly the right place in my view to be discussing these tricky issues.

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“He dodged the question completely. The point is, he is saying on the one hand ‘this is an island of strangers’ and yet on the other hand, one of the most obvious ways of starting integration of foreign people into our society is getting rid of these coverings.

“They are a huge security risk. We don’t know who’s beneath these coverings. I was a magistrate for 20 years. If someone walked into court with one of these coverings, I would have refused to continue proceedings.

“These are our values which are being pushed to the limit by this soft approach to cultural integration.”

Asked by Martin Daubney why she thinks Starmer refused to properly address the question, Pochin accused the Prime Minister of worrying more about how it might affect Labour at the next general election.

“It will [impact them] and I believe that’s why he refused to answer my question”, she said.

“They do not want to go down this road, even though they know this is what the British people want from their Government.

“It is a Reform government that would be brave enough to say ‘enough is enough, we need to stop this’.

“This is a huge security risk. We don’t know who’s coming over on these boats, let alone who is underneath these Burqas. How can the police do their job?

“I’m keen to have any face covering in public banned. Our society is about CCTV and the police need access to this. How on earth can the police know the risks if people have their faces covered up?”

Despite Pochin’s passionate arguments, she admitted Reform UK is yet to adopt an official policy of banning the Burqa.

“It’s not our party policy yet, we haven’t come to that decision yet, but I’m elected to represent my constituents”, she said.

“The House of Commons is the right place to pose that question and that is what I did.”

Asked by GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope about women who choose to wear the Burqa as a result of their faith and are unwilling to remove their face covering, Pochin elaborated on how her idea would work in practice.

“If they want to wear the Burqa in their own home or a closed setting, fine”, she said.

“But out on our streets, it’s absolutely not fine. It’s not fine for people to be wearing them in our schools, if they’re teachers or even young, teenage girls.

“How intimidating for young, English, children.”