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.

[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.

The two shook hands and had lunch together and Bloom thanked Crick, describing the incident as a "defining moment" that made him realise that he "wasn’t really suited to party politics".

[22] A spokesman said that Bloom was "an overwhelming choice" who "could easily have won this award on at least two other occasions... [he's] a wince-inducing gaffe machine and we could fill a page or two with his ill-advised quotes from 2013 alone".

[23] Bloom was ejected from the Mansion House in 2009 for heckling Lord Turner for giving staff bonuses after the massive regulatory failure of 2008/09.

"[28][30] Bloom told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that his comments were "said for fun" to illustrate a more serious point, that equal-rights legislation was, he claimed, putting women out of work.

"[31] After inviting students from the University of Cambridge Women's Rugby Club to Brussels in 2004, he was accused of sexual assault, making "sexist and misogynistic remarks" and using offensive language during a dinner party.

One student handed a formal letter of protest to the President of the European Parliament, heavily criticising Bloom's behaviour.

[36] At the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Bloom was filmed in front of the Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior II, saying, "Here we have one of the most truly fascist boats since 1945, well done the French for sinking one of these things.

In February 2012, Bloom interrupted a debate with the question whether the Cambridge University Women's Rugby team should wear their logo on the front or back of their shirts.

[41] On 24 November 2010, Bloom was ejected from the European Parliament after directing a Nazi slogan at German MEP Martin Schulz who was speaking in a debate on the economic crisis in Ireland.

[citation needed] Bloom later conceded that three members of his staff were also employed part-time at TBO, the company in which he is a major shareholder, and one of these is his wife's niece.

[43] In August 2014, TBO was fined and ordered to pay more than £2 million in damages to a retired couple, having ignored their request for cautious financial planning and "gambled" almost all their clients' money on high risk investments with an almost complete loss.

"[50] Fellow supporter of the motion, journalist and author Douglas Murray, described Bloom's comment as "gruesome"[51] and "the cruellest thing.

[53] On 2 December 2019, days after the 2019 London Bridge stabbing, Bloom tweeted in response to pleas from the father of one victim, Jack Merritt, that politicians not use his son's death for political gains:[54] "As I understand it your son died because he believed early release for jihadists was justified because they could be rehabilitated Society is demanding these releases stop immediately A very pragmatic view, nothing vile about it.