Farage calls for ban on all face coverings in public

Nigel Farage has called for a ban on all face coverings in British public spaces, from balaclavas to burkas, as Reform UK positions itself on public order after weekend unrest in Dover and Portsmouth.

The Daily Mail reports the Reform leader wants an immediate review of asylum grants, claiming Britain is "on edge of civil disturbance". The Guardian carries speculation about Reform's future direction without Farage, while GB News quotes Robert Jenrick warning Reform has "one chance" to turn the country around. The Mail separately reports on scripts migrants are allegedly using to claim asylum, including false domestic abuse claims and fake relationships.

The category matters. France imposed a ban on face coverings in public in law enacted October 2010, applicable to the burqa and the niqab. The stated justification was public order and secular neutrality, not counter-terrorism. Britain has no equivalent ban - face coverings are lawful except where a court or a police officer requires removal for identification. Farage is proposing to move Britain from the latter model to the former, using the same legislative frame France used but applying it to a different trigger - not secularism but disorder.

The test will be whether the policy survives contact with the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Britain remains a signatory. France's ban was upheld by the Strasbourg court, which ruled states could impose such restrictions in pursuit of "living together". Whether that precedent extends to a ban justified by public order fears, rather than by secular principle, is an open question.