Godfrey Bloom

Godfrey Bloom
TD
Bloom in 2009
UKIP Economics Spokesman
In office
22 May 2013 – 22 February 2014
LeaderNigel Farage
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded bySteven Woolfe
Member of the European Parliament
for Yorkshire and the Humber
In office
1 May 2004 – 2 July 2014
Preceded byRobert Goodwill
Succeeded byAmjad Bashir
Personal details
Born (1949-11-22) 22 November 1949 (age 74)
Lewisham, London, England
Political partyUK Independence Party (1998–2014)
Independent (2013–14)[1][2][3]
Spouse
Katryna Skowronek
​
(m. 1986)​
Residence(s)Wressle, East Riding of Yorkshire
ProfessionFinancial Economist
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1977–1996
RankMajor
Service number501912
UnitRoyal Corps of Transport

Godfrey William Bloom TD (born 22 November 1949) is a former British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber from 2004 to 2014. He was elected for the UK Independence Party in the European elections of 2004 and 2009, representing UKIP until September 2013, when UKIP withdrew the party whip from him. He then sat as an Independent until the end of his term of office in May 2014. Bloom resigned his UKIP party membership on 13 October 2014.[4]

During his tenure, he received attention for making remarks considered objectionable by his party leader, for his opinions concerning climate change and for making other controversial comments. On 20 September 2013, UKIP withdrew the party whip from Bloom after he hit journalist Michael Crick in the street with a conference brochure,[5] threatened a second reporter, and at the party's conference jokingly referred to his female audience as sluts.[6] Bloom resigned his party whip from UKIP on 24 September 2013 and thereafter sat as an Independent MEP until the end of his term in office on 2 July 2014.[1] Nigel Farage, the UKIP party leader, said "the trouble with Godfrey is that, he is not a racist, he's not an extremist or any of those things and he's not even anti-women, but he has a sort-of-rather old-fashioned Territorial Army sense of humour which does not translate very well in modern Britain".[7]

Bloom was removed as Honorary President of the Ludwig von Mises Centre in December 2017, the organisation citing his comments on Twitter.[8]

  1. ^ a b "Godfrey Bloom quits as UKIP MEP after 'sluts' joke row" Archived 20 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 24 September 2013
  2. ^ "Godfrey Bloom To Quit As Ukip MEP After 'Sluts' Row" Archived 19 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine, The Huffington Post, 24 September 2013
  3. ^ @GoddersBloom (13 October 2018). "The Conservative Party have relented. My membership card arrived today. I suspect the personal intervention of David Davis. Membership number 528905543 Haltemprice & Howden. More I suspect on this soon" (Tweet). Retrieved 13 October 2018 – via Twitter.
  4. ^ "Godfrey Bloom Leaves UKIP". ITV News. 13 October 2014. Archived from the original on 14 October 2014. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
  5. ^ "Selfish Godfrey Bloom's 'sluts' slur has killed Ukip conference, says Nigel Farage". The Telegraph. London. 20 September 2013. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  6. ^ "Godfrey Bloom: UKIP MEP Calls Women 'Sluts'". Sky News. 20 September 2013. Archived from the original on 27 October 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  7. ^ "Thwack! MEP's blunders derail Ukip party conference". Channel 4 News. 20 September 2013. Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  8. ^ "Announcement". Mises UK. Archived from the original on 18 December 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2017.