UKIP’s Godfrey Bloom, who called lesbian ‘a queer’, quits party because it’s ‘too politically correct’
Former MEP Godfrey Bloom has quit the United Kingdom Independence Party – claiming it has become too “politically correct”.
Mr Bloom, who was an MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, resigned the UKIP whip last year after several controversies at UKIP party conference, calling women “sluts” and hitting a journalist over the head with a leaflet.
However, he had remained a member of the party until this week – before finally resigning his membership on Monday.
Speaking to LBC, he said: “UKIP were supposed to be something new, but now we seem to be drifting towards the political correct mainstream just like everyone else and that’s not the reason people voted UKIP.
“Instead of it being the libertarian party of common sense, I’ve been banned from speaking. I don’t know where the party has gone astray, but it seems to have gone astray.”
Mr Bloom was previously a close friend of party leader Nigel Farage, with the pair even sharing a flat in Brussels – but he says since losing his seat he has lost contact with the politician completely.
Just last week the party welcomed former Christian Peoples Alliance leader Alan Craig, who has claimed that same-sex marriage amounts to “child abuse”, and warned about the “gaystapo”.
UKIP said at the time: “We’re not prejudiced against traditional, old-school Christians just as we’re not against homosexual people.”
The party also stood by its Newark by-election candidate Roger Helmer, who said he should be able to dislike gay people in the same way as different types of tea.
The East Midlands MEP has also compared same-sex marriage to incest, saying: “If two men have a right to marry, how can we deny the same right to two siblings? Are we to authorise incest?”
The party’s only Scottish MEP, David Coburn, last month referred to Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson as a ‘big fat lesbian’.