UKIP seeks ban on face-covering veils, new Muslim schools

LONDON – Britain’s anti-EU U.K. Independence Party says it will promote social unity by banning face-covering veils and barring the opening of new Islamic schools.

The right-wing party on Monday unveiled what it calls an “integration agenda” ahead of Britain’s June 8 election.

It includes bans on Sharia law and on wearing face-covering veils in public, and a call for the prosecution of parents of girls subjected to female genital mutilation.

Whittle also said there should be a moratorium on Islamic faith schools “until there is far better integration of the entire Muslim community.”

Green Party lawmaker Caroline Lucas accused UKIP of “full-throttled Islamophobia.”

UKIP played a major role in Britain’s decision last year to leave the EU but is struggling to remain relevant now that it has achieved its main goal.

UKIP’s only lawmaker in the House of Commons recently quit the party. UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has so far declined to say whether he will run for Parliament in June’s election.

Polls give Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives a big lead on the main Labour opposition and other parties in an election likely to be dominated by Britain’s decision to leave the EU.