UKIP Statement Sends Hampshire Women Back To The Dark Ages

2.06.02pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 23rd Jul 2004

A local Euro-MP has criticised a UKIP statement which he claims could send Hampshire women back into the dark ages.

UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom took up his position yesterday (Thursday) on the Parliament's Women's Rights Committee in Strasbourg. But it has been reported that he made discriminatory comments towards women in the workplace.

Commenting on the UKIP Euro-MP's words, Hampshire MEP Chris Huhne said: 'With this statement UKIP are taking the country back decades to an age where women had few if any rights or opportunities.

'UKIP look set to become the recruiting sergeants of the pro-European cause with attitudes like these. Millions of people in Britain have cause to thank the EU and the measures taken to promote equal opportunities.

'Of course there can be practical problems but you cannot exclude half of the population from the job market for reasons that amount to male chauvinism' Mr Huhne added. 'Mr Bloom is a bowler-hatted neanderthal who makes Alf Garnett look like a women's libber'.

Notes to Editors

The Press Association reported:

Investment fund manager Godfrey Bloom, from York, was given a place on the Parliament's Women's Rights Committee. He told journalists he wanted to deal with women's issues because 'I just don't think they clean behind the fridge enough'.

If it was intended purely as a joke, the freshman MEP raised no objections as reporters wrote down his remarks.

He carried on: 'I am here to represent Yorkshire women who always have dinner on the table when you get home. I am going to promote men's rights.'

Later, Mr Bloom went on television to expand on his views on women's rights, saying: 'The more women's rights you have, it's actually a bar to their employment.

'No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age.'

He added: 'That isn't politically correct, is it? But it's a fact of life. I know, because I am a businessman.'

see http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3230158 and also http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,7369,1265340,00.html for reports of the story)