European MP chauvinist jibe derails UKIP's Strasbourg debut

Euro MP sparks outrage over stance on women
Declaring that women 'don't clean behind the fridge enough', the British politician finds himself at the centre of a storm

LONDON - A Euro lawmaker from Britain has sparked controversy hours into his first day in the European Parliament.


Mr Godfrey Bloom (pictured) was given a seat on the Parliament's women's rights committee on Tuesday.

But Mr Bloom, from the UK Independence Party (UKIP), told the media: 'No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age.'

Fellow politicians were outraged, saying his views were terrifying and outrageous, the BBC reported.

Mr Bloom, an investment fund manager from York, told journalists he wanted to deal with women's issues because 'I just don't think they clean behind the fridge enough'.

'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,' he said.

The comments provoked a strong reaction from Labour Euro MP Glenys Kinnock, who said: 'We know the UKIP are Neanderthal in their attitudes, but it is absolutely terrifying that Mr Bloom can fly in the face of what we have worked and fought for - to establish equal opportunities and rights for women.'

Liberal Democrat MEP leader Chris Davies said: 'It looks like it is time for a ride back to the 1950s on the UKIP time machine, to the golden age of women's rights and opportunities.'

The leader of the Party of European Socialists, Mr Poul Nyrup Rassmussen, said Mr Bloom's remarks were 'outrageous' and 'absolutely unacceptable'.

He added: 'This is about equal rights. You cannot have the right to fire people because they are pregnant.

'It is not acceptable that employers should callously take account of whether women might get pregnant.'

But Mr Bloom said his comments were 'for fun' to illustrate a more serious point.

He told the BBC that equal rights legislation was actually putting women out of work.

And MEPs had 'little or no business experience' and did not understand the consequences of their actions.

He said: 'They probably in quite good faith put in a piece of legislation which is designed to protect women in the workplace but what actually happens is it... writes them out of employment.'