Rishi Sunak has been urged to de-select Liz Truss as a Tory election candidate after she appeared on a platform founded by a YouTuber who made comments about raping a Labour MP.
Labour’s Jess Phillips has written to the prime minister saying that Carl Benjamin, founder of the Lotus Eaters, “has despicable views about violence against women”.
Mr Benjamin claimed he was being “attacked and misrepresented” and said his previous comments were a “joke”.
Mr Benjamin wrote on Twitter in 2016 that he “wouldn’t even rape” Ms Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley.
In 2019, when he was standing to be a UKIP MEP, he refused to apologise and later went on to say: “I’ve been in a lot of trouble for my hardline stance of not even raping her. I suppose with enough pressure I might cave. But let’s be honest, nobody’s got that much beer.”
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A source close to Ms Truss said she has “no relationship with Carl Benjamin”.
However, Ms Phillips said Mr Sunak has a responsibility to “uphold high standards among your MPs and candidates” and should bar Ms Truss from standing in the election.
She called the Lotus Eaters a “far-right” and “hateful” platform and claimed that “as well as these misogynistic views” Mr Benjamin had promoted conspiracy theories about immigration.
She added: "It is clear that anyone willing to appear on this hateful platform is not suitable to be a candidate for any political party.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Rishi Sunak has been urged to de-select Liz Truss as a Tory election candidate after she appeared on a platform founded by a YouTuber who made comments about raping a Labour MP.
Mr Benjamin hit back on X: “It’s hard to believe that parliamentarians live in fear of YouTubers making jokes, when the apparently real threat of terrorism looms over their head.”
She called the Lotus Eaters a “far-right” and “hateful” platform and claimed that “as well as these misogynistic views” Mr Benjamin had promoted conspiracy theories about immigration.
In a lengthy statement, he claimed to have “a long-standing record of activism to promote awareness of violence against women and girls where the politically correct consensus least likes to look” and he takes the subject “very seriously”.
Her 49 days as prime minister - the shortest ever - ended after her package of unfunded tax cuts culminated with the Bank of England having to prevent pension markets from collapsing.
She has also been criticised for taking part in an interview with Donald Trump’s controversial former strategist Steve Bannon and remained silent as he praised former leader of the far-right English Defence League Tommy Robinson as a “hero”.
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