Politicians from the party said they were "anti-British", allowed Muslim women to hide their identities, and suggested they represented an "alien culture".

Plaid Cymru and Labour politicians responded with disdain - deputy first minister Sioned Williams raised the Nuremberg Laws of 1930s Germany and how they led to the extermination of Jews.

The Muslim Council of Wales described "disturbingly authoritarian attitudes" and Reform's Jason O'Connell accused the group of trying to "silence" the debate.

A protest, including some MSs, took place on the Senedd steps.

It is the latest heated debate in the Senedd on a Wednesday prompted by Reform MSs - previous include a discussion about the Nation of Sanctuary and calls for foreign nationals to be banned from house shares.

There was no vote on the topic. The Senedd would have no power to ban face coverings.

Reform UK has previously said it would ban face coverings in public places, including burkas and balaclavas, if it won power at the next Westminster election.

Opening the debate to a nearly full chamber, Reform UK MS for Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, Jason O'Connell, began by speaking about young men wearing balaclavas.

"From Newport to Rhyl, balaclava-clad young men, often dangerously riding illegal e-bikes, have been fuelling anti-social behaviour and making our streets feel unsafe," he said.

"For these individuals, face coverings are a way to conceal their identity, to make it harder for authorities to hold them accountable.

"And while governments across the UK turn a blind eye to this, Reform says enough is enough now, face coverings have no place in British and Welsh society."

Turning to the burka, O'Connell, who called Wednesday's debate, said: "We have no issue or problem with Islam or Muslims."

With opposing members heckling as he spoke, he added: "We do have an issue with people living amongst our communities hiding their identities.

"We say the same thing to protesters that cover their face, whatever their political persuasion."

Amid frequent interruptions, fellow Reform MS Francesca O'Brien told the Senedd that face coverings, including the burka, were "anti-British".

"Not all cultures are equal," she said, "we cannot continue to import alien cultures into this country and expect integration."

"Oppressive beliefs are totally at odds with our history and culture.

"Banning these coverings is simple, common sense."

Reform MS Joe Martin said the burka and niqab were "two of the many ways in which fundamentalist Islam is uniquely incompatible with Western civilization".

"We can't even see the faces of thousands of people who've moved here. If two Muslim women live in the same street and they both wear burkas, how are we meant to tell them apart?

"Assimilation means losing religious face coverings and to encourage that they should be banned."

The burka is a veil worn by some Muslim women that covers the face and body, often leaving a mesh screen to see through.

It covers more of the face than a niqab, a veil that leaves the area around the eyes clear.

In comparison, a hijab is a headscarf that in the West most commonly covers the head and neck but leaves the face clear.

Sioned Williams, deputy first minister, said the debate was a "shameful" end to a "sad day" that began with the commemoration of the Aberfan disaster.

Looking at the Reform members, she accused them of "conflating the intimidating behaviour of thugs and those whose protest can descend into disorder and violence, often in demonstrations directed against migrants or Muslims, with the very people who are targeted by that intimidating behaviour".

"I do not accept that a face covering worn by an individual for religious reasons means they don't share British or Welsh values," she said.

"Nor should we suggest that someone belongs any less, because their religious practice differs from that of others."

Williams added: "The Jewish people of 1930s Germany were subject to the Nuremberg Laws, which stated they were no longer German, laws which led to their persecution and extermination by the state that stripped them of the Germaness.

"Who decides that a woman who [has] a face covering is less British or less Welsh?"

The comments led to angry protests and finger-pointing from the Reform benches. A point of order was raised by a member of the party asking the presiding officer if the comments were appropriate.

The presiding officer Huw Irranca-Davies said he was "always happy" to review the record of proceedings, but did not make a ruling. Williams said she was making a "statement of fact".

Carrie Harper, Plaid MS for Fflint Wrecsam, told Reform: "How on earth can you claim to stand up for women when you are trying to dictate what Muslim women can and cannot wear?"

Plaid MS Kiera Marshall, for Caerdydd Penarth, said a Muslim woman in her constituency was subject to a "physical, violent attack in broad daylight".

"The attacker shouted at her about removing her headscarf and continued to do exactly this while physically assaulting her," she said.

"This is just one example of an increasingly common occurrence when Muslim women are being targeted.

"This is exactly what the rhetoric that Reform is peddling is doing."

Following the debate, Dr Abdul Azim Ahmed of the Muslim Council of Wales said: "This debate demonstrated the disturbingly authoritarian attitudes members of Reform UK hold, coupled with dangerously ultra nationalist attitudes about culture and belonging."

Ahead of the debate, a protest took place on the Senedd steps, with Plaid Cymru and Labour MSs later joining them.

One of those taking part, Suwayba Hussein from Cardiff, accused Reform of using the debate "to push Islamophobia".

"We're trying to just live our lives, we integrate really well, and this is just going to increase the Islamophobia that we see in modern-day society," she said.

"The Reform party are a racist party, and this is another way of them pushing their racism into mainstream debate."

During the debate, O'Connell said that accusations of racism and Islamophobia were "tired, ineffective, and clearly wildly inaccurate".

Opposition politicians and parties are able to use the Senedd on a Wednesday to raise issues that they want discussed, and individual members can trigger so-called "short debates".

Since the election, Reform - which is the second largest group in the Welsh Parliament - has used Wednesdays to raise topics that resulted in angry debates.

The topic of short debates must not contain language considered by the presiding officer to be disorderly, discriminatory or offensive.

BBC Wales was told before the debate proceeded that the Senedd's presiding officer, Huw Irranca-Davies, did not consider the title - "full-face coverings are against British values" - to be against the guidance.