Ukip leader Gerard Batten has dismissed comments bade by candidate Carl Benjamin about raping Labour MP Jess Phillips as a "bad-taste joke".
The candidate for the party has repeatedly made offensive jibes about the Labour MP.
Most recently he quipped: "There's been an awful lot of talk about whether I would or wouldn't rape Jess Phillips.
"I suppose with enough pressure I might cave, but let's be honest nobody's got that much beer."
The Ukip leader today dismissed the comments by the party's candidate in the south west as "a bad-taste joke which I wouldn't have made."
Mr Batten said of the Ukip candidate: "He has another existence as a commentator and a comedian on the internet."
He said he had called up Mr Benjamin and "he won't be making comments like that again".
But the candidate has made a number of such jibes about Ms Phillips which have caused outrage across the political spectrum.
Ukip 'rape joke' man Carl Benjamin forced to admit words can lead to violence
Mr Batten blamed the "mainstream media" saying that it only kept happening because "he keeps being asked about it".
Mr Benjamin tweeted about Phillips in 2016 and said "I wouldn't even rape you."
Last week the self-styled free speech warrior was accused by Victoria Derbyshire of "normalising this kind of language", Mr Benjamin replied: "I'm normalising comedy."
Brexit 'will arrive in May 2020 at the earliest' due to Tory leadership bid
Jess Phillips said she felt "sick" after watching the interview.
"I feel sick watching Carl Benjamin chuckling along to people joining in what the language he has given them about putting a bag on my head and raping me," she wrote on Twitter .
Today Mr Batten said he didn't believe the polls which have Ukip polling behind all the main parties on just 2%.
He said: "I don't actually believe the polls I think the Brexit Party is being bigged up as it doesn't represent a proper domestic threat."
Police tell McDonald's to halt milkshake sales during Nigel Farage rally
But the Ukip leader admitted he would have to go if he lost his seat in the European Parliament in London.
