Minister calls for debate on Muslim veil in public ban

The Government should consider banning Muslim girls and young women from wearing the veil in public places, a Liberal Democrat minister has said.

Home Office Minister Jeremy Browne called for a national debate on whether the state should step in to prevent young women having the veil imposed upon them.

Mr Browne told the Telegraph he was "instinctively uneasy" about restricting religious freedoms but said there may be a case to act to protect girls who were too young to decide for themselves whether they wished to wear the veil or not.

His intervention came after a row erupted over the decision by Birmingham Metropolitan College to drop a ban on the wearing of full-face veils amid public protests.