'Completely harmless': Offord forced to defend 'tartan burqa' joke at Reform conference
Malcolm Offord said people need to ‘stop taking it all quite so seriously’.
Reform UK’s Scottish leader has defended MP Sarah Pochin’s “tartan burqa” joke as “a little bit of humour”.
The Runcorn and Helsby MP was condemned for the joke she made when her autocue failed during a speech at the party’s Scottish conference on Thursday.
She said: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burqa, but apparently I wasn’t allowed.
“One day, let’s have one of these events that aren’t livestreamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff.
“We’ll do all the bits that have done wrong and all the effing and jeffing when we do our pieces to camera and all the rest of it - hilarious.”
Malcolm Offord, the party’s leader in Scotland, has since said it was an “unscripted moment” and added: “It’s completely harmless.”
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast, Mr Offord said: “At Reform UK we have a nice atmosphere in the room.
“It was a little bit of humour. We need to stop taking it all quite so seriously.
“One of the characteristics of being Scottish is having a little sense of humour.”
He also said the public will not view her comments as racism. Mr Offord said: “This is not racist. We have to understand we live in a diverse society and we all have to rub along together.”
Ms Pochin has previously been condemned for calling for an outright ban on burqas.
Last year she used her first PMQs question in the House of Commons to ask Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to ban burqas “in the interest of public safety”.
She said: “Given the Prime Minister’s desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he, in the interest of public safety, follow the lead of France, Belgium, Denmark and others and ban the burqa?”
At the time Reform said banning burqas was not party policy, but chairman Zia Yusuf later said he would support a ban on “all face coverings in public” if the party gets into power, including the burqa.
Following her comments on Thursday, a spokesperson for Labour said: “It took less than 30 seconds for Sarah Pochin to start making jokes about Muslims after her autocue broke.
“The same Sarah Pochin who said it drives her mad seeing too many black and Asian people on TV adverts.”
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.