Barbara Driver has refused to resign over her rape comment (Picture: SWNS)

A conservative councillor who told a meeting ‘when rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it’ has refused to resign.

Barbara Driver, who works for Cheltenham Borough Council, apologised for the remark she made on Wednesday during an interview with BBC Gloucestershire today, but said she would not leave her job.

‘It was totally, utterly wrong,’ she said.

Mrs Driver caused offence when she compared plans to build new homes to rape during a council meeting.


According to the Gloucestershire Echo, she said: ‘There is a saying and I am going to say it: When rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it.’



After fellow councillors condemned the remarks as ‘shocking’ and ‘atrocious’, Mrs Driver offered her ‘sincere apologies’ in an open letter.

Speaking to the BBC, she added she did not condone rape but hoped her controversial remarks would be a catalyst to start a debate about it.

‘I shouldn’t have said it, but perhaps on the other hand this puts rape right in the spotlight and perhaps we can do something positive out of this,’ she said.