A YORKSHIRE Euro MP has branded calls for 40 per cent of top management posts to be given to women as “insulting”.

Godfrey Bloom, who represents the region in the European Parliament, says advising businesses to hire women on to their executive boards or face mandatory quotas is “reverse discrimination” and such appointments should be based on merit.

Mr Bloom said: “It is an insult to all businesswomen who have worked hard to attain their positions and means there will be suspicions they are just ‘token’ women, there because of a European Union diktat and not because of their talent and endeavour.”