May piles the pressure on Boris for claiming burkas are ‘ridiculous’
PRIME Minister Theresa May yesterday piled pressure on Boris Johnson to apologise for “causing offence” with remarks about burkas.
An outcry followed a newspaper article in which Mr Johnson said he did not want the fullface veil and gown donned by some Muslim women to be banned in Britain but the outfit was “ridiculous” and “weird”.
It made wearers look like letter boxes or bank robbers, he said.
As the outcry grew Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis ordered Mr Johnson to apologise.
The former foreign secretary defiantly refused to bow to criticism.
But the Prime Minister, in Edinburgh, to discuss new investment and Brexit, said: “I am very clear, and the Government is very clear about our position on the burka. Women should be able to choose how to dress.
“It’s not up to other people to tell a woman how to dress.
“We all have to be very careful about the language and the terms that we use, and some of the terms that Boris used in describing people’s appearance obviously have offended people. I agree with Brandon Lewis.” However she refused to be drawn on suggestions that Mr Johnson should lose the party whip over the row.
She also declined to agree with those who alleged Mr Johnson had been trying to drive up support for a new party leadership bid by reaching for “dog whistle” politics appealing to people’s prejudices.
She also refused to say if she thought the comments were Islamophobic – which is what Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called them.
Ms Sturgeon said: “The comments are reprehensible and disgraceful.”
Earlier, Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt told the BBC of Mr Johnson’s article: “I’d never have made such a comment. There is a degree of offence.”
But a source close to Mr Johnson, who has become a bookie’s favourite to succeed Mrs May since he quit her Cabinet in protest at Brexit plans, made clear he was in no mood to back down. The source said: “It is ridiculous that these views are being attacked. We must not fall into the trap of shutting down the debate on difficult issues. “If we fail to speak up for liberal values, then we are simply yielding ground to reactionaries and extremists.” Muslim former Tory Cabinet Minister Baroness Warsi accused Mr Johnson of copying US right-wing “dog whistle” tactics to build support for a future leadership bid. She also echoed calls for an independent inquiry into alleged Islamophobia in the Conservative Party. The Muslim Council of Britain condemned Mr Johnson’s “intentional usage of the words” to “pander to the far right”. But Tory MP Nadine Dorries said: “Any clothing a woman is forced to wear which hides both her beauty and her bruises should be banned and have no place in our liberal, progressive country.”