We live in a country of 66 million people – and yet UKIP still manages to crawl underneath every rock and crevice in Britain to find an MEP candidate who thinks it’s acceptable to “joke” about rape.
Carl Benjamin trolled MP Jess Phillips in 2016 tweeting: “I wouldn’t even rape you…#FeminisimIsCancer.
The Labour politician wasn’t hugely worried then because, as she said, he was just “some idiot down the pub”.
Fast-forward three years and the vlogger now has serious political ambitions. You’d think in light of this he might show some remorse.
Not in the slightest. In fact, he doubled down on his favourite social media platform, YouTube, suggesting that with enough pressure and enough beer he “might cave” and sexually assault her.
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UKIP backed him, saying: “The year is 2019, jokes you’d hear down the pub are now worthy of police investigation.”
Benjamin, a poster-boy for toxic masculinity, can’t see what the fuss is about, telling Buzzfeed: “Any subject can be the subject of a joke”.
But these are not jokes. Rape isn’t about whether you find someone attractive or ugly – it’s about power and control – and it’s deeply disturbing to hear someone who is seeking to stand for public office using this highly offensive language.
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The Crime Survey for England and Wales for the year to March 31, 2017, estimated 3.4 million women and 631,000 men had been victims of sexual assault since the age of 16.
It also found that 83% of victims did not report their experience to the police.
West Midlands police have launched an investigation into Benjamin.
But, unless something drastic happens, the real joke here is Benjamin will still be allowed to stand for public office. Under current electoral law, he can only be banned if he has served a year or more in prison.
This is a ridiculous situation and one which needs to change urgently.
Benjamin should not be allowed to stand.
In UK politics, ministers and MPs have rightly resigned after being found sending lewd text messages.
The Electoral Commission need to step in and a make a change. Politics has never been uglier, so isn’t it time someone tried to start putting things right?
