In July 2013, Bloom made a speech about Britain's foreign aid in which he referred to countries as "Bongo Bongo Land". A video was passed to "The Guardian" newspaper. A spokesman for UKIP was reported as saying that Bloom's remarks were being "discussed right at the very highest level of the party". After refusing to apologise, he later said he regretted the comments but clarified it by saying that whilst he intended it to be derogatory, he regretted that it had caused offence and he didn't mean it to be racist. Party leader Nigel Farage later asked him not to use the phrase again.