Police investigate Ukip candidate over Jess Phillips rape comments

Phillips told the BBC she broke down in tears in Birmingham city centre ‘because I felt the weight of years and years and years of abuse’. Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/ShutterstockPolice are investigating comments by a Ukip candidate in the European elections speculating about whether he would rape the MP Jess Phillips amid growing concern over threats to politicians. Carl Benjamin, Ukip’s candidate for South West England, sent a tweet to the MP for Birmingham Yardley in 2016 sayin