One of the UK Independence Party's new Euro MPs triggered a storm of protest over women's rights today, within hours of starting work in the European Parliament.
Investment fund manager Mr Godfrey Bloom , from York, was given a place on the Parliament's Women's Rights Committee on his first day in Strasbourg.
He told journalists he wanted to deal with women's issues because "I just don't think they clean behind the fridge enough".
He added: "I am here to represent Yorkshire women who always have dinner on the table when you get home. I am going to promote men's rights."
Later, Mr Bloom went on television to expand on his views on women's rights, saying: "The more women's rights you have, it's actually a bar to their employment. No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age.
"That isn't politically correct, is it? But it's a fact of life. I know, because I am a businessman."
Mr Bloom also told a British news website that maternity policy should be: "If you want to have a baby, you hand in your resignation and free up a job for another young lady."
His public utterances on the need to take Britain out of the European Union were immediately forgotten as Mr Bloom 's words spread like wildfire through the Strasbourg building.
Labour MEP Ms Glenys Kinnock said: "We know UKIP are Neanderthal in their attitudes, but it is absolutely terrifying that Mr Bloom can fly in the face of what we have worked and fought for, to establish equal opportunities and rights for women."
She added: "I will be watching what he does with great interest. He cannot strut around here saying things like that."
The leader of the Party of European Socialists, Poul Nyrup Rassmussen, said Mr Bloom 's remarks were "outrageous" and "absolutely unacceptable".
PA