Laila Cunningham accused of endangering Muslims after saying: ‘If you’re hiding your face, you’re hiding it for a criminal reason’
Reform UK’s mayoral candidate for London has been accused of endangering Muslims after she said women wearing the burqa should be subject to stop and search.
Laila Cunningham, who was announced as Reform’s candidate for the 2028 mayoral elections last week, said no one should cover their face “in an open society”, adding: “It has to be assumed that if you’re hiding your face, you’re hiding it for a criminal reason.”
Cunningham told the Standard podcast: “If you go to parts of London, it does feel like a Muslim city. The signs are written in a different language. You’ve got burqas being sold in markets.” She said there should be “one civic culture” and it “should be British”.
The former prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, herself a British-born Muslim of Egyptian descent, has been subject to Islamophobic abuse since it was announced that she would lead the rightwing party’s local election campaign in London.
