It is not “appropriate” for students to wear a full veil in the classroom or for people to go through airport security with their faces covered, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said yesterday.
But Clegg said he did not want to see a state ban on the wearing of religious items of clothing in particular circumstances.
His comments came as a Liberal Democrat minister said the Government should consider banning Muslim girls and young women from wearing the veil in public places.
Home Office Minister Jeremy Browne called for a national debate on whether the state should step in to prevent young women having the veil imposed upon them.
His intervention was sparked by a row over the decision by Birmingham Metropolitan College to drop a ban on the wearing of full-face veils amid public protests.
Responding to Browne’s comments, Clegg said: “My own view, very strongly held, is that we shouldn’t end up like other countries issuing edicts or laws from Parliament telling people what they should or should not wear. This is a free country and people going about their own business should be free to wear what they wish. I think it is very un-British to start telling people what pieces of clothing they should wear.
“I think there are exceptions to that as far as the full veil is concerned – security at airports for instance. It is perfectly reasonable for us to say the full veil is clearly not appropriate there. And I think in the classroom, there is an issue of course about teachers being able to address their students in a way where they can address them face to face. I think it is quite difficult in the classroom to be able to do that.”
A number of Conservative MPs have voiced dismay at the way the Birmingham Metropolitan College case was handled.
The college had originally banned niqabs and burkas from its campuses eight years ago on the grounds that students should be easily identifiable at all times.
But when a 17-year-old prospective student complained to her local newspaper that she was being discriminated against, a campaign sprang up against the ban, attracting 8,000 signatures to an online petition in just 48 hours.
Following the college’s decision to withdraw the ruling, Downing Street said David Cameron would support a ban in his children’s schools, although the decision should rest with the head teacher. However, the Prime Minister has been coming under growing pressure from his own MPs for a rethink on current Department for Education guidelines in order to protect schools and colleges from being “bullied”.
Tory backbencher Sarah Wollaston said the veils were “deeply offensive” and were “making women invisible”, and called for the niqab to be banned in schools and colleges.
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said he was “disgusted” by Browne’s calls to consider banning Muslim girls and young women from wearing the veil in public places.