Though far-right party Ukip might have gained popularity over the past few years, their success rate with women is entirely questionable. As well as numerous clangers over the last few years – remember Godfrey Bloom saying women were ‘sluts’, or a major donor, Demetri Marchessini, saying marital rape is OK? – Nigel hit the hammer on the head of the nail to seal the coffin for Ukip as woman-haters while on the campaign trail this week.
As polls ahead of the Clacton-on-Sea by-election show that Ukip is riding high, it’s women who could lose it for the party over in Heywood and Middleton. A survey by Lord Ashcroft found that though Ukip would win on male votes alone, with 41% of them set to choose Nigel Farage’s party, only 21% of women are set to do the same.
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When asked why this might be (the day after he sat atop a tank for a photo op, no less), Farage then totally cemented himself and his party as out-of-touch, hairy-nostrilled, beer-swilling men in flat-caps and a light pong of 2p-coin BO with this reply: ‘I am not going to pretend to reach out to female voters or voters of all different denominations. We’re one country, we’re one people and this party is making huge progress.’
See, though women make up 51% of the UK population, we’re just a ‘denomination’ to Farage, like Morris Dancers or Wiccans. He continued, reports The Telegraph: ‘The problem with female voters and Ukip is that, over the last five to ten years, at times, on a very bad day, we’ve looked a bit blokeish, a bit like a rugby club on a day out and I’m probably the most guilty person of all... The pub and everything else. It’s true, it was a very male-dominated party in every aspect.’
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And what’s changed? Well, nothing. As Farage pointed out with his suggestion as to how he might get women to start voting Ukip: ‘What do you want me to do? Go sell flowers?’
Hopefully, as much as people have loved his ‘tell it like it is’ schtick, more people will make like women and refuse to endorse the ex-banker’s party with votes. Though there’s something attractive about a politician who doesn’t bang on about hard-working families or speak like a specially programmed robot, it’s worth remembering that for all Farage’s supposed honesty, he doesn’t seem to give a shit about women. At all.
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Under his rule, a workplace could turn you down for a job because you’re a woman, there would be no paid maternity leave and there would be no such thing as sexual harassment laws. Oh, and based on their voting record in Europe, his party doesn’t care to vote about FGM, equal pay or violence against women. We needn’t explain why that’s fucked up. Fingers crossed the only flowers Nigel will be selling are the ones to his party’s funeral.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.