Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom Calls Women 'Sluts' (LISTEN)

Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom Calls Women 'Sluts' (LISTEN)
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Godfrey Bloom, UKIP's candidate for police commissioner of Humberside Police, holds a press conference in London today.
PA

Controversial Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom attended an event at the Ukip conference in Westminster on Friday that was designed to promote the advancement of women in politics. And called them all "sluts".

After two senior female Ukip members joked that they did not clean behind the fridge, as Bloom said it was where women belonged, he joyfully shouted: "This place is full of sluts."

Confronted by journalists outside the event, Bloom defended his comment as "a joke", and insisted all the women at the event had taken it in good humour.

"I made a joke and said 'oh well you're all sluts' and everybody laughed and all the women laughed," he said. "Was there a single women in there who didn't laugh at the joke?"

Bloom also made a prediction about the future leadership of the party, currently led by Nigel Farage. "I think in five years the new leader of Ukip will be a woman," he said. Asked if that meant Farage was planning to step down, he added: "You think Nigel Farage is going to go on forever do you?"

After calling Sky News' Darren Mccaffrey a "sad little man", Bloom took off down the street pursued by reporters. He then hit Channel 4's Michael Crick over the head with a Ukip conference book and called him a "racist", before jumping into a taxi to make his escape.

Crick had asked Bloom about the front cover of the book which carries the slogan "changing the face of politics" but features no face that is not white.

Bloom took offence to the question. "What a racist comment. How dare you, thats an appalling thing to say, you're picking people out for the colour of their skin? You disgust me."

Amid a media storm over Bloom's comments, Farage told the BBC News that his MEP should have the party whip removed as a result of his "selfish" comments that were "beyond the pale".

However the Ukip leader said he did not have the power by himself to sack him from the party and the proper procedures had to be followed.

"My own view is Godfrey repeated behaviour has been selfish," he said. "It's beginning to overshadow all the good things we are saying here today."