Hollande vows to keep burka ban

France’s socialist presidential candidate has said that, if elected, he will not seek to overturn a law banning face-covering Muslim veils enacted by President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives.

Francois Hollande, who leads Mr Sarkozy in all polls, and most other Socialists abstained from the 2010 vote in the National Assembly to ban mesh-screen burkas and niqabs, which have slits for the eyes.