Nigel Farage: it's a 'fact of life' that mothers will earn less in some jobs
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Version 0 of 1. Nigel Farage has said it’s difficult to change the “fact of life” that women will earn less than men when they return to some jobs after childbirth, as he made a surprise appearance on ITV’s Loose Women. The Ukip leader appeared to be well received by his audience, despite having described his interview asgoing into the lion’s den and begged the presenters to have mercy on him. He was first filmed sipping a coffee, with a cigarette in hand, in the studio garden, before coming inside for a grilling about his party’s immigration policies, his drinking, family life, health and why he has been called the most hated man in Britain. Farage also predicted that Ukip would win more than 10 seats at the general election, after previously only saying that his party would do better than gaining a handful. There are around five seats where the bookmakers have Ukip odds-on to win – all of which are Conservative constituencies. At one point during the interview, Farage even defended the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, against attacks on his character and looks by newspapers. “It is really vile. Forget the politics of it, it’s personal ad hominem attacks. It’s nasty,” he said. At the end, he was asked about his views on mothers returning to the workplace, after previously saying a woman working in the City with a client base was “worth far less to her employer when she comes back” after two or three years off. He told the programme that women can be “disadvantaged” in the workplace by childbirth, although not if they work in some careers such as medicine or the law. In some jobs, he said, women who take time off to have children find they are behind the rest of the pack and earning less money than others when they return, and it is difficult to change that. “If you’re a doctor, a lawyer, a researcher, you’re a woman, you have a baby, you take six months or a year off. You are not disadvantaged at all in that job. But there are other jobs in which if you take six months off and come back you find yourself behind the rest of the pack and earning less money. That is a fact of life. It’s difficult to change that,.” Theshadow business minister, Stella Creasy, objected to the comment, tweeting: “Sorry- @Nigel_Farage said what?! Just a fact of life is it women earn less after kids? No it’s an injustice and we can change it.” However, Farage was not pressed on the issue by the interviewing panel, who also asked him how he balanced his personal and public life. He admitted he does not have much time to see his family given that he is up at 5am and home by midnight, but said those who choose to go into politics have to be “fairly selfish”. “I notice the other three big leaders are very good at coming on programmes like this and saying what wonderful family men they are and how they do the school run and when the babies were little they changed all the nappies and did the night feeds. Well, maybe that’s true, but all I can say is my life in politics, it’s pretty much impossible to do that,” he said. Farage joked that he only spent five or six hours in the pub, before going on to say he did think he deserved a “sherbert” at lunchtime. The Ukip leader appeared to charm his audience, despite previously annoying some women’s groups with his comments about mothers returning to work and his suggestion that they could “perhaps sit in the corner” when they breastfeed. |