Kemi Badenoch is reportedly mulling a burka ban as her party explores ways to crack down on Islamist extremism. Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, and Shadow Justice Secretary, Nick Timothy, are said to be looking into the merits of banning the garment, which covers the whole body but leaves space for the eyes.

Mr Philp is reported by The Telegraph as feeling concerned that the attire can prevent integration, divide people and encourage extremism. A ban would bring the Conservative Party into line with Reform UK‘s approach. Zia Yusuf, the outfit’s home affairs spokesman, told the same publication burkas are “un-British” in a western liberal democracy and it would be “disconcerting” if you were buying something from Tesco and you couldn’t make eye contact with the shop assistant scanning your stuff.

A number of countries have already banned burkas in one way or another, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and parts of Spain. France banned wearing face-coverings, including burkas, in public in 2011.

Full or partial bans have also been introduced in Chad, Gabon, Senegal, China, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, among others.

Conservative Party leader Mrs Badenoch last year said she would not speak to women wearing burkas at her constituency surgeries.

She also argued that employers should be allowed to ban staff from wearing face coverings.

But Mrs Badenoch told the Sunday Telegraph at that time that women should be able to choose what they wore and things such as sharia courts were “more insidious”.

Mrs Badenoch’s potential shift in position would put her party at odds with Sir Keir Starmer‘s Labour and bring the Tories closer to Reform’s stance ahead of May’s local elections.

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood, who is a devout Muslim, has defended a woman’s right to choose what she wears.

Both she and the prime minister will be battling to win back Muslim voters after Labour was beaten into third place by the Greens and Reform UK at the Gorton and Denton by-election in February.

Muslim voters had been relied on by Labour to turn out for them, but anger at the party over its position on Gaza and the Government’s immigration crackdown have alienated many.