CUCA has announced that Godfrey Bloom, former UKIP MEP, will speak at its annual Chairman’s Dinner, and attend their afterparty at the Pitt Club.

In 2004, Bloom hosted a dinner in Brussels which was attended by members of the Cambridge University Women’s Rugby Team (CUWRFC) alongside members of York University as part of a two day tour of the European Parliament organised by Bloom. At the dinner, he was accused of sexually harassing a number of women. He denied these allegations.

Bloom was also alleged to have made a series of sexist and misogynistic remarks at the dinner. He did not deny making all of these comments and admitted he “possibly” described a businesswoman who he was set to meet the next day as “big tits, very feisty".

At the time, the Cambridge Women’s Union voted by seventeen to one to denounce Bloom and to lobby for the cancellation of his invitation to speak at a debate at the Cambridge Union. The debate went ahead and Bloom was reported to have joked about misogyny during his speech.

Speaking to Varsity, a spokesperson for CUCA said that they “take such accusations very very seriously” and that the organisation “wholeheartedly condemns sexism and racism and has a zero tolerance policy on both of these issues”.

The spokesperson also said that Bloom being “continually invited back to speak at the Union (and the University more broadly)” as “further proof that he poses no risk to student welfare”.

At an event organised by CUCA in February 2014, Bloom told those present: “welfare is the cancer of the nation”. He also criticised the honours system: “this is the problem. You want your wife, Sharon, to be Lady Sharon. You want it for her, for being a nice little wife - you’ve not cheated on her. Much. People will sell their souls for an honour”.

CUCA’s spokesperson also stated that “as well as being an appointed member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, [Bloom] was for five years on the EU General Committee trying to liberalise legislation for young women”.

When Bloom was newly elected to the European Parliament in 2004, he said that he wanted to “deal with women’s issues because I just don’t think they clean behind the fridge enough”.

UKIP removed the party whip from Bloom after he referred to a group of female activists as “sluts” in 2013. He made the comments at the party’s annual conference, while addressing a “women in politics” event.

At the same 2013 conference, Bloom was filmed calling Channel 4 news reporter Michael Crick a “racist” after he asked Bloom why there were no non-white faces on a campaign flyer.  

The former MEP has also been accused of anti-semitism after referring to Goldman Sachs as an “international Jewish bank”. Bloom, a Brexiteer, tweeted this in response to the CEO of the bank calling for a second Brexit referendum in 2017.

Bloom is also known for his climate change scepticism, tweeting yesterday: “Man made apocryphal global warming is now the greatest hoax in world history.”

Just minutes before he also retweeted in a post from Pure Climate Skeptic, adding, in an apparant reference to 16 year old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, “Somebody tell the wee Swedish pixie & her retarded disciples.”

He is set to speak at CUCA’s dinner on 12th June.