Robert Jenrick was left squirming as he was asked to explain exactly how a joke from a fellow Reform MP about wearing a ‘tartan burqa’ was meant to be funny.
Last week, Sarah Pochin sparked outrage after she joked that she wanted to a “come on in a Reform tartan burka” at the launch of Reform’s Scottish elections campaign.
She said: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I just wasn’t allowed.”
Pochin went on to say that Reform should one day do an event that isn’t live-streamed where “we’ll do all the naughty stuff.”
“It’ll be hilarious,” she added.
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The Runcorn and Helsby MP was condemned from all sides for the joke, with many calling her out for mocking Muslims and their religion.
However, her Reform colleague Jenrick had no issue with the comment, telling LBC that it was a “perfectly legitimate view.”
This prompted host Lewis Goodall to ask the Newark MP exactly what was meant to be funny about the comment.
As Jenrick tried to argue it was more of a comment on whether or not Muslim women wearing the burqa was “repressive,” Goodall put it to him that Pochin would not have made a similar joke about any other religion.
“Why make fun of how Muslims dress,” he asked Jenrick. “Do you think all women wearing burqas are Islamists?”
When Jenrick said he did not think this, Goodall followed up: “So if a left-wing MP went up to a party conference and joked, ‘I wanted to dress up in Jewish orthodox dress,’ would that be funny?”
Jenrick refused to answer the question, simply repeating that it is a “perfectly legitimate view to say that you don’t like the burqa.”