The Daily Mail reports on Peter Bone (pictured), Conservative MP for Wellingborough, questioning the Justice Minister, Jack Straw, in the House of Commons yesterday on whether he believed there should be a change to the law on the wearing of the burqa in public places.

Mr Bone asked: ‘Does the Secretary of State and Lord High Chancellor believe that there should be a change in the law with regard to the wearing of the burqa in public places?’

To which the Justice Minister replied: ‘No I do not, and I would strongly recommend against a change in the law.’

Jack Straw added: ‘All of us may have views about the wearing of the burqa, but I do not believe that the matter should be the subject of the criminal law-that would be expecting the police to remove these items of apparel from women who chose, for religious or cultural reasons, to wear them. That should have no part in the system of law in the United Kingdom.’

Last week the Conservative MP for Kettering, Philip Hollobone, likened the wearing of the burqa to ‘the religious equivalent of going around with a paper bag over your head’.