Jack Straw has reignited the row over his request for Muslim women to remove their veils, by admitting he would prefer the garments not to be worn at all.
His comments came a day after he disclosed that he asks women who hold constituency meetings with him to remove their veil so that they can truly talk "face to face".
Those remarks sparked controversy, with Muslim leaders in his Blackburn constituency saying that many Muslim women would find his comments "offensive and disturbing" and George Galloway, the Respect MP, demanding his resignation. However, others said they understood Mr Straw’s position.
Today, the Leader of the Commons went a step further. Asked on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme if he would rather the veils be discarded completely, he responded: "Yes. It needs to be made clear I am not talking about being prescriptive but with all the caveats, yes, I would rather."
Echoing his contentious comments of yesterday, Mr Straw said he had seen more women wearing the veil in the street and he had "picked up quite considerable concerns about this being a rather visible demonstration of separateness".
He warned against the "development of parallel communities", adding: "Unless we bring some of these issues out which lead to parallel development, we will all be worse off."
Mr Straw said that the increasing trend towards covering facial features was "bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult. You cannot force people where they live, that’s a matter of choice and economics, but you can be concerned about the implications of separateness and I am."
He insisted that the problem was not to do with religious dress but "the face... and to do with how we relate to strangers…communication in meetings is far more effective if we can see each other’s faces," he said.
"Communities are bound together partly by informal chance relations between strangers - people being able to acknowledge each other in the street or being able pass the time of day.
"That’s made more difficult if people are wearing a veil. That’s just a fact of life. I understand the concerns but I hope, however, there can be a mature debate about this.
"I come to this out of a profound commitment to equal rights for Muslim communities and an equal concern about adverse development about parallel communities."
Mr Straw added that he did not think Muslims in Blackburn, who constitute around a quarter of his constituents, were "intimidated" by the request coming from a Cabinet Minister.
He insisted that he respected those who wore the veil and would never demand it was removed, but added that in conversation it was important to "not only hear what people say but see what they mean".
Mr Straw’s latest comments have further provoked the ire of Islamic groups, already angry by his request to Muslim constituents to remove the veil in meetings with him.
Catherine Hossain, from the campaigning organisation Muslim Public Affairs Committee, accused Mr Straw of seeking to grab media attention rather than tackling the real problem of community divisions. "My real concern is that he’s trivialised a real and serious problem of the segregation that we have between Muslims and non-Muslims in towns like Blackburn."
She added: "What has he actually done in terms of substantive policy? This headline-grabbing remark about removing the veil, that’s not going to solve the problem.
Labour Party colleagues, including chair Hazel Blears, gave their backing to comments made by Mr Straw yesterday, saying his request to constituents was "perfectly proper". Downing Street said that Mr Straw was expressing a private opinion.
Oliver Letwin, Conservative policy director, said it would be a "dangerous doctrine" to start telling people how to dress.
"If a person is making a statement about how they want to dress, I think it's pretty important we live in a country where you're allowed to do that," he said. Simon Hughes, Liberal Democrat Party Chairman, dubbed the remarks "insensitive and surprising".
But Daud Abdullah, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said it was up to individual women whether to wear the veil, adding that he understood that the issue could cause discomfort to non-Muslims.
"Even within the Muslim community the scholars have different views on this. Our view is that if it is going to cause discomfort and that can be avoided then it can be done," he said, adding: "The veil over the hair is obligatory."
Yesterday Mr Straw wrote that the wearing of full veils was making "better, positive relations" between communities "more difficult". Concealing a face was "a visible statement of separation and of difference", he wrote in the Lancashire Telegraph.
"The value of a meeting, as opposed to a letter or phone call, is that you can - almost literally - see what the other person means, and not just hear what they say."
He later told BBC Radio Lancashire that this "needs to be discussed because in our society, we are able to relate, particularly to strangers, by being able to read their faces, and if you can’t read people's faces, that does provide some separation".
He understood why some women wanted to be covered, citing a meeting with a constituent who "said she felt more comfortable when she was outside wearing the veil and she was less troubled by people".
"What I’m saying on the other side is, would those people who do wear the veil think about the implications for community relations," he said.
He added that he always made sure that a female colleague was present in the room when requesting that a woman should remove her veil - and his constituents had so far agreed when he had asked.
Mr Straw also said that he defended the right of women to wear headscarves (the hijab) — which, he said, was the issue in France that had led to recent controversy.
The Lancashire Council of Mosques said Mr Straw had "misunderstood" the issue and it was "deeply concerned" by his "very insensitive and unwise" statement. Hamid Quereshi, of the organisation, said that Mr Straw’s request for women to remove their veil could only be justified on security or identity grounds.
"Women believe that wearing it is God’s command. I do not know what principle he is trying to establish. If he thinks it is about community cohesion concerns, he is mistaken. There are thousands of things that we do together," he said.
Mr Straw, who held the seat with an 8,000 majority for Labour last time and until recently was Foreign Secretary, has a close relationship with Muslim groups in his constituency. Muslim leaders are on first-name terms with their MP, who has held the seat for 27 years, but his comments in the local paper have caused disquiet.
Earlier this week Canon Chris Chivers, of Blackburn Cathedral, said that not enough was being done to bring communities together.
