Reform UK’s London mayor candidate condemned for burqa stop and search remarks
Reform UK’s mayoral candidate for London has been accused of endangering Muslims after she said women wearing the burqa should be subject to stop and search.Laila Cunningham, who was announced as Reform’s candidate for the 2028 mayoral elections last week, said no one should cover their face “in an open society”, adding: “It has to be assumed that if you’re hiding your face, you’re hiding it for a criminal reason.”Cunningham told the Standard podcast: “If you go to parts of London, it does feel like a Muslim city.The signs are written in a different language.You’ve got burqas being sold in markets.
” She said there should be “one civic culture” and it “should be British”.The former prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, herself a British-born Muslim of Egyptian descent, has been subjected to Islamophobic abuse since it was announced she would lead the rightwing party’s local election campaign in London.The crossbench peer Shaista Gohir, who is the CEO of the Muslim Women’s Network UK, called Cunningham’s comments “dangerous” and a “dog whistle” to racists and said they would further alienate Muslim women, including the minority who wear a burqa.Gohir said her charity had been forced to remove signage outside its offices and picture profiles of staff because of a sharp rise in the number of abusive and threatening letters and emails it had received.“We’ve had letters sent about grooming gangs saying all Muslims are scum, Muslims are filth,” she said.
“It is hateful stuff, so obviously people are fearful.”Gohir said that despite Cunningham’s background she was “sending a message to Muslims that they do not belong” and “emboldening people who already abuse Muslims and influencing those people who are reading this misinformation”.She said: “The number of Muslim women who wear the burqa in this country is tiny, and yet [Cunningham] has chosen to focus on that instead of the NHS, schools or the cost of living.Is she going to get the police to arrest wealthy burqa-wearing visitors in Harrods, or is it just women in Whitechapel?”Speaking on LBC after the comments, Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, said figures “trying to sow seeds of division” was nothing new and that it was the job of a mayor to bring people together.“Almost without argument, our city is the greatest city in the world because of our diversity,” he said.
“I mean, how far back do you want to go in terms of freedom of religion, freedom of expression and so forth? These are quintessentially British rights that we’re so proud of.”Afzal Khan, the Labour MP for Manchester Rusholme, called Cunningham’s comments a “deliberate and cynical ploy”, adding: “This is all about divisive ideas being pumped into the society deliberately for electoral benefits.”He pointed to research that Boris Johnson’s comments comparing veiled Muslim women to letterboxes led to a surge in anti-Muslim attacks and incidents of abuse.“There are consequences for the word that politicians use,” Khan said.“What anyone wears is no business of the state or the politicians.
Individuals have the freedom to choose.”The issue of the veil has been a difficult one for Reform.Last July, Reform’s former chair Zia Yusuf described a question from the party’s MP Sarah Pochin calling for a burqa ban as “dumb”, as it was not party policy.On Friday he reposted Cunningham’s interview on X.
‘The dollar is losing credibility’: why central banks are scrambling for gold
Fifteen minutes after takeoff, the call came for Serbia’s central bank governor: millions of dollars’ worth of gold bars, destined for a high-security Belgrade vault, had been left on the runway of a Swiss airport.In air freight – despite the extraordinary value of bullion – fresh flowers, food and other perishables still take priority. “We learned this the hard way,” Jorgovanka Tabaković told a conference late last year.Serbia’s is among a growing number of central banks to hastily amass vast stockpiles of gold, upending decades of conventional economic logic and fuelling an increase in the gold price amid mounting geopolitical tensions. As Washington challenges the US Federal Reserve’s independence, sending jitters through financial markets, the price soared to a record $4,643 (£3,463) an ounce this week, and analysts have tipped it to break $5,000 this year
Bank of England governor hits out at populism as Trump interferes in US Fed
The governor of the Bank of England has urged the world’s leading global institutions to fight back against the rise of populism, warning that it represents one of the biggest threats to improvements in living standards.In a thinly veiled response to Donald Trump’s attempts to interfere with the independence of the US Federal Reserve, Andrew Bailey said that he and the heads of other institutions had a duty to “challenge back” populist narratives.“Part of the purpose of international agencies is that from time to time they have to tell us what we don’t want to hear, let alone act upon,” he said. “Of course, they have to be accountable for the accuracy and quality of the assessment. But, accepting that, we have to call out messenger shooting
ChatGPT to start showing ads in the US
ChatGPT will start including advertisements beside answers for US users as OpenAI seeks a new revenue stream.The ads will be tested first in ChatGPT for US users only, the company announced on Friday, after increasing speculation that the San Francisco firm would turn to a potential cashflow model on top of its current subscriptions.The ads will start in the coming weeks and will be included above or below, rather than within, answers. Mock-ups circulated by the company show the ads in a tinted box. They will be served to adult users “when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation”, according to OpenAI’s announcement
Amazon workers at Coventry warehouse tested for tuberculosis after outbreak
Amazon is testing workers at its Coventry warehouse for tuberculosis after an outbreak of the lung disease.A handful of workers from the site were found to have contagious tuberculosis (TB) last year, prompting the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to begin running a screening programme in September.Amazon said 10 people at the site, which employs about 2,000 people according to the GMB union, had since tested positive for the non-contagious, or latent, variety of TB late last year.Some people have TB in their body but do not get ill or have any symptoms – this is known as latent TB. This variant cannot be spread to others, but it can turn into active, contagious TB in the future if it is not treated
Vergil Ortiz Jr sues Golden Boy in dispute tied to stalled Jaron Ennis talks
Vergil Ortiz Jr has filed a federal lawsuit against Golden Boy Promotions, seeking to end his relationship with Oscar De La Hoya’s company amid stalled negotiations for what he views as a career-defining fight against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.Ortiz, the unbeaten World Boxing Council interim junior middleweight champion, filed the complaint on Thursday in US district court in Nevada, asking a judge to confirm that his promotional agreement with Golden Boy has been terminated and alleging that the promoter breached the contract and interfered with his earning potential.Golden Boy has promoted the Texan since his professional debut in 2016 and signed him to a new three-year deal in May 2024. Ortiz’s lawsuit, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, argues that the agreement allowed him to walk away if Golden Boy’s broadcast partnership with Dazn ended – a condition he says was triggered when the promoter’s deal with the streamer expired on 31 December.According to the complaint, Ortiz formally exercised his right to terminate the agreement on 8 January
Lewis Hamilton to get new engineer as Adami replaced in Ferrari shake-up
Ferrari have announced they are to replace Riccardo Adami as Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer for the 2026 Formula One season, after the pair endured what appeared to be a fractious and testing relationship during the seven-time world champion’s first season with the Scuderia.Ferrari issued a statement on Friday stating Adami would be moved to a new role with the team’s driver academy as academy and test previous cars manager, adding that his replacement as Hamilton’s race engineer, the crucial link between team and driver on the pit wall, would be announced in due course.During his first year with Ferrari, a trying season with the car well off the pace of the frontrunners and with Hamilton struggling to adapt to a new team, his relationship with Adami appeared to be far from easy. The pair endured several terse exchanges with Hamilton expressing frustration and confusion, notably in Monaco when he asked his engineer at the end of the race: “Are you upset with me or something?” He appeared to receive no reply.Hamilton dismissed speculation that the pair did not enjoy a good working relationship at the time as “BS” and said Adami had “been amazing to work with, he’s a great guy”
Bank of England governor calls for fightback against populism; South East Water restores service to most Kent and Sussex homes – as it happened
Top two bosses at City & Guilds placed on leave after bonus scandal
Partly AI-generated folk-pop hit barred from Sweden’s official charts
Prominent PR firm accused of commissioning favourable changes to Wikipedia pages
Testing times for English cricket | Letters
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