Angela Rayner, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, responding to Boris Johnson’s comments on Nick Conrad, said:

“The fact that Boris Johnson has stood by the Conservative candidate who says victims of rape are to blame, rather than their attackers, is further evidence that the Party is infected with sexism from top to bottom.

“Nick Conrad’s views should be consigned to the dustbin of history. They have no place in the 21st century, let alone in Parliament. He is not fit to be an MP and it would be an affront to women everywhere if he becomes one. He must be immediately dropped as a candidate.

“But sadly Boris Johnson’s defence of Nick Conrad comes as no surprise. Johnson himself wrote that the way to deal with advice from a female colleague was to ‘just pat her on the bottom and send her on her way’, Johnson has been accused of squeezing the thigh of a young journalist at a work lunch and Johnson abstained on a vote to extend abortion rights to women in Northern Ireland. As long as Boris Johnson is Prime Minister, we risk losing the hard-won rights that women before us gave up their lives and liberty to attain.”