Ukip leader Gerard Batten storms out of Sky News interview over candidate who said he ‘wouldn’t even rape’ Jess Phillips ‘How many times are you going to ask me the same question?’

This is the moment UKIP leader Gerard Batten stormed out of an interview after being taken to task over a candidate’s tweets to Labour MP Jess Phillips.

The leader of the eurosceptic party became angry with Sky News’s Kate McCann as she challenged him over tweets by Carl Benjamin, a candidate for South West England in the European elections.

Read more: Gerard Batten defends candidate’s rape tweet as ‘satire’ The i politics newsletter cut through the noise Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

Mr Benjamin, who is a Youtuber under the name of Sargon of Akkad, tweeted that he “wouldn’t even rape” the MP for Birmingham Yardley in 2016.

Mr Batten, who has been accused of dragging the party to the right, faced tough questioning on the topic.

The journalist asked him: “On the rape joke, you said it was a satirical comment. What did you mean by that?”

‘Go and ask Carl Benjamin’

He responded: “Well, go and ask Carl Benjamin. This is a three-year-old tweet that he did in the context of some Twitter trolling that people were doing.”

But Ms McCann did not accept his answer, saying: “I’m not asking about the comments he made, I’m asking about your defence of his comments, because he remains a Ukip candidate and you are the leader of the party and you have made a decision to keep him as a candidate.”

Mr Batten said: “He has made an ill-considered remark, and if you were going to stop people taking part in public life or anything else, because of some stupid, ill-considered remark of several years before, then I don’t think you’d have anybody in Parliament or anywhere else in public life

“We all do things which we regret, he can defend it or not as he likes, but I’m not going to stop having a valuable candidate on the list.

‘We’re seeking other avenues to the public’

I tried to ask Gerard Batten about his defence of a Ukip candidate who said he “wouldn’t even rape” ⁦@jessphillips⁩ but I didn’t have much luck earlier. Perhaps I’ll get an answer during the Q&A shortly … pic.twitter.com/sXqvCV0gyz — Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) April 18, 2019

Mr Batten said that the candidate is someone who can get Ukip “access to social media and thousands more people that we can talk to” that it cannot reach through traditional media, saying “we’re seeking other avenues to the public”.

But as Ms McCann pushed him further, he repeatedly asked, “how many times are you going to ask me the same question?”

He then said “thank you very much” and brought the interview to an abrupt end.

MEP candidate

Carl Benjamin at @UKIP European Parliamentary Elections 2019 Press Conference#MakeBrexitHappen pic.twitter.com/mFSphbyEtn — Carl Benjamin MEP Campaign (@CarlUKIP) April 18, 2019

Ms Phillips had tweeted after launching a campaign aimed at cleaning up the internet that: “People talking about raping me isn’t fun, but has become somewhat par for the course.” Mr Benjamin replied: “I wouldn’t even rape you, Jess Phillips.”

Mr Benjamin’s YouTube channel has nearly 1 million subscribers. He is standing as a MEP candidate for the South West of England region in the May EU elections.

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, left the party in protest at the direction of travel and has started the Brexit Party, that will also be participating in elections that will take place between 23-26 May.

Read more: Nigel Farage criticises UKIP

Talking to the BBC ahead of the party’s launch last week he said of Ukip: “In terms of policy, there’s no difference, but in terms of personnel there is a vast difference.

“Ukip did struggle to get enough good people into it but unfortunately what it’s chosen to do is allow the far right to join it and take it over and I’m afraid the brand is now tarnished.”