A UKIP European election candidate is being investigated by the police after he joked that he might rape a Labour MP.

Well-known liberal YouTube personality Carl Benjamin, known online as Sargon of Akkad, recently came under fire for a three-year-old tweet to Labour MP Jess Philips, who had been discussing rape threats on the social media platform. “I wouldn’t even rape you, @jessphillips,” he wrote. His account has since been banned.

Highlighting the absurdity of the liberal media turning a negative statement on rape into a controversy, Benjamin then released a video in which he joked: “There’s been an awful lot of talk about whether I would or wouldn’t rape Jess Phillips. I’ve been in a lot of trouble for my hard-line stance of not even raping her.

“I suppose with enough pressure I might cave. But let’s be honest nobody’s got that much beer.”

A police spokesman said: “Police have received a report of malicious communications relating to MP Jess Phillips. 

“Officers have spoken to Ms Phillips and the comments are being investigated to establish if an offence has taken place.”

Their investigations follow an initial investigation into the original tweet last December. A spokesman for Wiltshire Police told The Independent that in that instance Benjamin was “dealt with by words of advice,” but that they are reviewing a dossier of his social media broadcasts.

Speaking in a pub, Benjamin, 39, has told independent journalist Lucy Brown that he will not apologise for the tweet. “Never apologise. Never apologise,” he said.

“They don’t care about a three-year-old tweet. This is a political attack that they think will be able to stop my candidacy, and they fail to understand that that didn’t work for Donald Trump; I don’t see why it should work for me, and I’m not going to apologise.”

UKIP leader Gerard Batten has dismissed the controversy, pointing out that the original tweet was “satire.”