CREATING a law to ban the burka would be “just absurd”, Wycombe MP Steve Baker says.
The wearing of the Islamic face veil has been the subject of a heated debate this week.
It follows Tory MP Philip Hollobone’s comments that he would not meet constituents wearing a burka unless the veil was lifted.
He put forward a private members bill which would make it illegal for people to cover their faces in public.
A recent YouGov poll of 2,205 voters found 67 per cent support a burka ban while French MPs last week voted to outlaw the wearing of full-face veils in public.
But Mr Baker said wearing the garment was about “modesty”.
He told the Free Press: “My view is that ladies should be able to wear whatever they wish within the bounds of decency, as indeed anyone should.
“I think if a lady wishes to cover her face in the interests of modesty she should be entitled to do so.
“One of the crazy things about this discussion is people are talking about using the law to compel ladies to be less modest. That’s the way I see it.”
He said: “It just isn’t a matter for the law. Imagine what we would be like if the law was saying your skirt was too long, it ought to be shorter, there would be uproar, it would be mad.
“It’s just absurd. Ladies who want to wear it should be allowed to wear it.”
He said: “As a personal subjective thing when I’m speaking to someone I like to see their face because we are all humans and I don’t think I’ve sinned by looking at a ladies face but I understand that other people have other views.”
Mr Baker said he would never turn a burka wearing constituent away.
“I think it’s a matter for each individual MP to decide but again I think the law should be silent on it.
“When a person comes to see an MP, bear in mind they’re only going to see their MP because they are at the end of their tether.
“So to add to their problems by saying they’ve got to be less modest, not for me, I wouldn’t do it.
“There’s a large Asian population and Muslim population in Wycombe and I’ve never had an lady come to see me who was not showing her face and I wouldn’t be offended if a lady did so.”
But he added nobody should be “compelled” to wear one either.
Mr Baker’s Tory colleague Immigration minister Damian Green has dismissed the idea of a ban, claiming it would be “rather un-British”.
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