Reform’s Holyrood bid to ban the burka fails

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The motion argued that a ban on full-face coverings in public places, explicitly including the niqab and burka worn by some Muslim women could improve “public safety, individual liberty and community cohesion.”

Ms McDade argued “even in circumstances where there is no criminality, many of us may feel fearful, surrounded by people whose faces we cannot see,” before describing her experience seeing a number of women in burkas as she campaigned in the Gorton and Denton by-election.

Branding the area a “ghetto,” she said: “If I were a lesbian holding my hands with my partner, I would not walk down there at dusk.”

Responding for the Scottish government, Community Safety Minister Kirsten Oswald told Ms McDade “it is none of your business what women wear” and, noting that balaclavas were not mentioned in the motion, accused Reform of singling out Muslim women and inciting racial hatred.

“The motion tells us exactly what they are interested in, and that is telling women, specifically Muslim women, what to wear,” she said.

“I want to be crystal clear here: this motion […] is deliberately divisive, racist, Islamophobic and designed to foster hostility. It is an attack on Muslim women.

“It is a disgraceful way for an alleged political party to conduct themselves, and they should be ashamed.”

Liberal Democrat MSP Yi-pei Chou Turvey called the motion “tripe aimed at getting publicity,” while Scottish Labour’s Pauline McNeill accused Reform of “stirring up hostility.”

“Helen McDade said that people live in fear of Muslim women who wear face coverings because they can’t see their faces,” she said.

“The idea that anyone would live in fear because you can’t see someone’s face I really do not accept.”

Scottish Greens’ Maggie Chapman told MSPs some people arrived at Holyrood with an agenda to “punch down on the most vulnerable and marginalised in our society, to tell people that they don’t belong, to say that the way someone lives, loves or dresses is not welcome here.”

She said: “The motion reflects exactly that nasty, narrow-minded and racist agenda.”

The motion fell by 92 votes to 15, with eight abstentions.

Wales / 22 October 2026 Reform slammed for ‘shameful’ Senedd debate on banning face-coverings 22 October 2026 by Ella Groves, ICNN Senedd reporter