UK foreign aid going to ‘bongo bongo land’ – Ukip MEP
A senior Ukip politician is caught on camera saying Britain should not send aid to “bongo bongo land”, claiming the money is spent on luxuries such as “Ray-Ban sunglasses” and “Ferraris”.
Godfrey Bloom, a Ukip MEP, was filmed at a meeting of supporters in the West Midlands criticising the way foreign aid money is spent.
In video footage of Mr Bloom’s speech at the meeting in Wordsley, near Stourbridge, obtained by the Guardian, he says: “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.
“To buy Ray-Ban sunglasses, apartments in Paris, Ferraris and all the rest of it that goes with most of the foreign aid. F18s for Pakistan. We need a new squadron of F18s. Who’s got the squadrons? Pakistan, where we send the money.”
The fact that the Guardian is reporting this will probably double my vote in the north of England – Godfrey Bloom, Ukip
A Ukip spokesman said that Mr Bloom’s comments were being “discussed right at the very highest level of the party”. Chairman Steve Crowther later added: “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.”
However Mr Bloom told the Guardian that he doesn’t “do political correctness” and said: “What’s wrong with that? I’m not a wishy-washy Tory.”
He added: “The fact that the Guardian is reporting this will probably double my vote in the north of England.”
Life sentences
The video also shows Mr Bloom railing against the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for ruling that full life sentences could not be handed down.
Later in the speech, but in the same video, he says: “You can torture people to death but you jolly well can’t give them a full life sentence because that’s against their human rights.
“We can’t hang them because we’re now a member of the European Union and it’s embedded in the treaty of Rome. It’s a personal thing, but I’d hang the b*****ds myself.
“Especially for some of these, especially for the guy who hacked the soldier to death. I do hope they would ask me to throw the rope over the beam because I’d be delighted to do so.”