Angry scenes in Senedd as Reform UK debate seeks ban on full-face coverings
Reform UK MSs called for full-face coverings to be banned in a heated Senedd short debate on Wednesday, prompting a furious response from Labour and Plaid Cymru; no vote was held and the Senedd has no power to impose such a ban.
Bad-tempered exchanges broke out in the Senedd as Reform UK called for full-face coverings to be banned in Wednesday’s short debate titled “full-face coverings are against British values”.
Jason O’Connell, the Reform UK MS for Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, told the debate: “We have no issue or problem with Islam or Muslims.”
Reform MS Francesca O’Brien called face coverings “anti-British”: “Not all cultures are equal.” Reform MS Joe Martin called the burka and niqab “two of the many ways in which fundamentalist Islam is uniquely incompatible with Western civilization”.
Deputy First Minister Sioned Williams called the debate a “shameful” end to a “sad day” on the day of the Aberfan disaster commemoration, invoking the Nuremberg Laws and rejecting the idea that religious face coverings mean wearers “don’t share British or Welsh values”.
Reform members answered with angry protests and finger-pointing after a point of order was raised; presiding officer Huw Irranca-Davies said he was “always happy” to review the record but made no ruling.
Protesters gathered on the Senedd steps; afterwards, Plaid’s Safa Elhassan addressed them. Dr Abdul Azim Ahmed of the Muslim Council of Wales said the debate “demonstrated the disturbingly authoritarian attitudes members of Reform UK hold”.
No vote was held, and the Senedd has no power to ban face coverings: policing and criminal law are not devolved. Reform UK has said it would ban face coverings if it won the next Westminster election. The debate followed ITV Exposure’s “Undercover: A Year in Reform”, aired on 18 October.
Sources: The Muslim Times/BBC Wales (Deans & Davies) reporting at themuslimtimes.info; corroborating detail on devolution and Reform’s stated position from UK News Latest, 19 October 2026.
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