Reform UK members and local politicians gathered in Dover on Monday as the party unveiled its plan to tackle the small boats crisis and take control of Britain’s borders.

Speaking at the event, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesperson, said he would support a ban on “all face coverings in public” if the party gets into power, including the burka.

A burka is a type of outer garment worn by some Muslim women that fully covers the body and the face.

Last year, Mr Yusuf briefly quit the party after he described a question to the Prime Minister about a ban on burkas as “dumb”

Read more: Reform to announce ‘visa freeze’ for certain countries if deportees are refused

Read more: What are Reform’s policies and can it really win an election?

When asked by a reporter today whether he would support a burka ban, Mr Yusuf told the press conference: “I personally support a ban on all face coverings in public… that’s actually a piece of legislation that has multiple bonuses to it because it’s going to aid integrations, it’s also going to help people feel safe.”

He added: “If you’re walking down a pavement and someone is walking in the opposite direction towards you at dusk, and they are wearing a hoodie and a balaclava, or worse, you generally cross the road.

“In this era of massive CCTV per capita in London, or any city in the world, the people who can opt out of that surveillance, ridiculously, are the people who wear those face coverings.”

He added that while he supported a ban on face coverings, Reform UK has not yet agreed on a formal policy.

The confirmation of the policy came just moments after party leader Nigel Farage vowed to defeat a “form of extreme right ethno-nationalism” sweeping across Britain.

Farage also spoke out against face coverings, sharing an anecdote about an event in Newcastle when a mob wearing Antifa face masks arrived and started breaking windows. 

“We’ve seen this pattern of behaviour again and again, and again makes it difficult, virtually impossible, for police to identify them,” he said. “I believe that is wrong.”

He added: “I think face coverings in public are problematic for many, many reasons, not just religious ones.”

Mr Yusuf’s burka comments came minutes after he announced plans to launch a programme to deport “all illegal migrants” in the country, saying Britain is being “invaded” by migrants.

Defending his choice of language, he told the Dover audience: “I know many in the establishment gasp at that word.

“They may well clutch their pearls in the television studios, but the dictionary definition of invasion is an incursion by a large number of people in an unwanted way.

“Make no mistake, as home secretary, I will end and indeed reverse this invasion, because the patience of the British people is now exhausted.”

Earlier, Mr Farage opened the press conference by claiming a lack of cultural integration in Britain is steering the country towards a “really worrying” and dangerous form of extreme right-wing ethno-nationalism.

“Nobody over the last quarter of a century has done more to defeat the genuine intolerant, abhorrent far-right extreme far-right than me,” he claimed.

He also argued the “deeper issue” of rising net migration is plaguing Britain.

Mr Farage said: “It’s important we get a grip on this because there is no issue other than legal or illegal immigration that has broken the bond of trust between voters and those that govern us more than this issue.”