IT’S BEEN A rough day for UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom.
It takes a lot to overshadow your party leader after he has been shown on tv with an accidental Hitler moustache, but the 63-year-old senior politician managed to draw a lot of attention on the first day of his party’s annual conference in London.
In less than 12 hours, Bloom whacked a journalist on the head with a UKIP brochure, called him a racist, had to defend his use of the word “sluts”, and ended up losing the party whip.
First things first: here’s Bloom’s run-in with Channel 4′s political correspondent Michael Crick.
Crick had asked Bloom his thoughts about the fact that none of the many people shown on the cover of the UKIP conference brochure are black (UKIP has been criticised over its anti-immigrant policies and has had to repeatedly deny accusations that it is racist).
However, Bloom fiercely resisted Crick’s question. “What a racist comment is that? How dare you?,” he bellowed. “That’s an appalling thing to say. You’re picking people out for the colour of their skin. You disgust me”.
(Video: Channel 4 News/YouTube)
That wasn’t what lost Bloom the party whip, however. That happened after Bloom was recorded referring to women as “sluts” for saying that they did not clean behind their fridges.
Bloom was at a party forum on Women in Politics when he made the comments.
He defended himself afterwards by saying that he had been making a joke and that all the women in the room had laughed.
However UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he would recommend sanctions against the Yorkshire MEP, saying that Bloom had “gone beyond the pale” and had “destroyed” the conference. Bloom will remain an MEP but has been suspended from formal involvement in party business.
“Increasingly, over past months, his [Bloom's] statements have left us in a position where, frankly, what we stand for and what we campaign for are irrelevant,” Farrage told an audience this evening. “Because all anyone wants to know is Godfrey’s latest comment, I’ve had very sharp words with him about it.”
(Video: skendong/YouTube)
It was not Bloom’s first run-in with Channel 4. Last month he walked out on a interview with Channel 4 News when he was questioned about his use of the phrase “Bongo Bongo Land” and whether it was racist.
(Video: Channel 4 News/YouTube)
Is it just us or does his attack over the UKIP party brochure strangely reminiscint of this David Brent moment?
(Video: pneshati/YouTube)
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