The initial polls suggest this could be true, it is not just a right wing issue either considering the comments made by Khan and Thornbury in the past and why bans have been implemented across europe.
True, it's not just a right/left issue, it's a lot more complex than that.
Personally I do have a problem with the burka and to a lesser extent all other kinds of covering / requirement for women to dress modestly. It is misogynistic bullshit. If it weren't, the men would be doing the same. But is banning a proportionate response? I'm not sure. I live in France, one of the countries which has implemented a ban, and I like not seeing people walking around with their faced covered. I find it sinister. But what is the effect of the ban on women who were previously wearing them? Are they going out with their faces uncovered now, or do they stay inside? I don't know. I suspect that banning the burka simply hides the issue from people like me, who don't really want to confront it, rather than making it disappear.
I am neither right nor left wing and for what it's worth, I completely agree with what Sadiq Khan said. I also agree with some of what Boris said, but not the manner in which he expressed it.
The manner in which you express your opinion on sensitive matters like this is important. It is the difference between having a grown up debate and encouraging religious persecution of minorities.
I also don't believe for a moment that Boris Johnson is concerned about this issue or about women's welfare. Boris is the ultimate narcissist who doesn't care about anything except himself.
What is truly frightening here is the way that he seems to have reignited a baying mob calling for the burka to be banned, but no one can really pull him up on it. His article was not calling for the burka to be banned and although it contained a couple of silly and offensive remarks (deliberately, in order to get attention and rile people up), you would be hard pressed to find anything in his article which you could genuinely describe as racist.
I could easily see Farage doing the same thing, but with less subtlety and for a different motive. If Farage did it I could well believe that his motive was to drum up support for banning the burka.
But Boris?
He doesn't want to ban the burka. That article was, I believe, his truthful opinion, expressed in such a way as to drum up support for Boris from people who would like to see the burka banned. Even though he did not actually call for the burka to be banned.
Very very clever. He's played an absolute blinder.