Sinnott shocked by ally’s attack on women’s rights

NEWLY elected MEP Kathy Sinnott is having to reconsider the political group she joined on her first day in the European Parliament after one of its members came out against women’s rights.

UK Independence Party MEP Godfrey Bloom said he believed women did not clean behind the fridge enough and he was going to represent men’s rights.

He was nominated by UKIP to serve on the Women’s Rights Committee and said he would work to remove rights such as paid maternity leave.

The shocked campaigner for the disabled said she had insisted on the group, Independence/Democracy, having a strict policy of not tolerating any discrimination.

“This has to be bordering very close to discrimination,” Ms Sinnott said.

Ms Sinnott, who took two Constitutional cases to gain rights for her disabled son, joined the group made up of eurosceptics who are against the Constitution and anti-EU parties like UKIP.

“We created two pillars that are linked for official reasons. I would be uncomfortable with the UKIP but we share just a few positions in that we are opposed to the new Constitution and to a European super state,” Ms Sinnott said.

After hearing the comments of Mr Bloom, Ms Sinnott said she was shocked. “I will have to raise this with the group and consider my position.”

One of 12 UKIP members elected to the Parliament, Yorkshire man Mr Bloom said he was there to represent Yorkshire women “that always have dinner on the table when you come home.” He said he believed that the more rights women had, the greater barrier it was to them getting work.

He said the policy should be: “If you want to have a baby, you hand in your resignation and free up a job for another young lady.”

Ms Sinnott was one of 13 Irish MEPs to join the enlarged Parliament of 732 members at its first post-election session in Strasbourg yesterday.

Fellow South MEP Brian Crowley took over as co-president of his UEN group, the smallest in the Parliament with 27 members, to which the four Fianna Fáil MEPs belong.

Sinn Féin’s new MEPs, Mary Lou McDonald and Bairbre de Bruin, kept a low profile, saving themselves for their first official press conference today.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will address the European Parliament today on the Irish Presidency, while the nomination of Jose Manuel Barroso for European Commission president will be debated.