A Ukip election candidate has refused to apologise for sending a rape tweet to Labour’s Jess Phillips, as the anti-EU party kicked off its European election campaign at a chaotic event.

Carl Benjamin claimed he was justified in being ”a giant dick” to the MP.

He complained she had been a “bitch” before he sent her a message saying: “I wouldn’t even rape you.”

Ukip leader Gerard Batten earlier stormed out of an interview after being challenged over his defence of the tweet.

His party faces being eclipsed by its former leader in next month’s EU vote, with polls showing Nigel Farage‘s Brexit Party is on course for victory.

Official figures show consumers have continued to ignore concerns about Brexit to send retail sales surging in March

Sales were up 1.1 per cent on February, well above expectations of a fall of 0.3 per cent, driven by food and non-store retailing, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

However all retailers except department stores and household goods stores saw an increase in sales in the three months to March 2019 compared with the previous quarter.

Department stores were the only store type to suffer a decrease in sales – of 0.3 per cent - when compared with last March.

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