Outspoken UKIP politician Godfrey Bloom has lost the party whip for calling women "sluts" at the party's conference.
The MEP, who started a furore this summer by claiming taxpayers' money was being wasted on foreign aid sent to "Bongo Bongo Land", was involved in an extraordinary row on Friday.
He argued with Sky News after he was challenged about a comment made at a fringe meeting at the party's annual gathering in London.
The event was designed to promote the advancement of women in politics. After two female UKIP members joked they did not clean behind the fridge, Mr Bloom admits he joked: "This place is full of sluts."
"I made a joke and said 'oh well, you're all sluts' and everybody laughed and all the women laughed," he said afterwards. "Was there a single woman in there who didn't laugh at the joke?"
The politician dubbed Sky's Darren McCaffrey a "sad little man" after he pointed out the word "sluts" could be considered highly derogatory.
Mr Bloom, MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, later insisted his comment was harmless.
He wrote on Twitter: "Made a purposely outrageous joke among friends which was taken as joke by women present.
"It should not be taken out of context and misinterpreted by a hostile press."
The politician is no stranger to controversy. He first raised eyebrows this summer by claiming taxpayers' money was being wasted on foreign aid sent to "Bongo Bongo Land".
And then last month he suggested women were more suited to "finding mustard in the pantry" than driving cars. He also called 20th century feminists "shrill, bored, middle class women of a certain physical genre".
