Outrage at MEP’s ‘bongo bongo land’ remarks

Reuters/London

A British Member of the European Parliament (MEP) has said London should not be sending aid to “bongo bongo land”, raising questions about his anti-Europe UKIP party that is chipping away at support for the ruling Conservatives.

UKIP, which stands for UK Independence Party, wants Britain to quit the European Union. It is expected to do well in next year’s European elections, boosted by disaffected Conservatives who want tougher policies on Europe and immigration.

In footage obtained by the Guardian newspaper, MEP Godfrey Bloom, 63, can be heard arguing it was wrong for Britain to send aid to developing countries while struggling with spending cuts.

“How we can possibly be giving a billion pounds a month when we’re in this sort of debt to bongo bongo land is completely beyond me,” Bloom told a meeting of supporters last month. The film emerged yesterday.

“To buy Ray-Ban sunglasses, apartments in Paris, Ferraris and all the rest of it that goes with most of the foreign aid.”

UKIP rejected calls by politicians from other parties to expel Bloom from the party. “We are asking Godfrey not to use this phrase again as it might be considered disparaging by members from other countries. However foreign aid is an extremely important debate that needs wider discussion,” said party chairman Steve Crowther.

Rushanara Ali, a member of parliament and the opposition Labour Party’s spokeswoman on international development, was among many who expressed outrage over Bloom’s language. “It’s just offensive and the kind of thing that should have been consigned to the history books,” she said.

Britain’s “first-past-the-post” voting system favours large, established parties like the Conservatives and Labour and makes it very hard for newer, smaller parties to gain seats.

No UKIP candidate has been elected to the Westminster parliament. However, the party has won seats for 11 members in the European parliament in Strasbourg and Brussels.

And UKIP has also received growing support in Britain’s local polls and by-elections, sometimes beating the Conservatives into third place.

Bloom, who describes himself on Twitter as “urbane, witty, well informed and sensitive, even as he punches your lights out”, was thrown out of a session of the European parliament for directing a Nazi chant at a German member in 2010. He stood by his “bongo bongo land” comments yesterday.