During the 2019 European Parliament elections (Theresa May was trying to put off Brexit for as long as possible so in 2019 the UK was still had to elect MEPs) the UKIP leader at the time decided that his failing party could claw back relevance by fielding far-right social media personalities as candidates. He asked a whole bunch of them and Carl Benjamin, Paul Joseph Watson, and the Nazi pug guy all agreed to stand.

Mainstream media caught wind of the rape comments and after an interview about them on the BBC involved him passionately defending his right to appraise women on whether or not he'd rape them, Carl Benjamin became the low hanging fruit for media ridicule for the election. Worsened because Carl would double down on it every time he was asked, refusing to budge an inch in his stalwart defence of his own deep-seated misogyny.

Carl's views on rape spread to becoming the main thing any journalist would ask any UKIP member in interviews at the time, and it was causing conflict within the party and losing them support in the polls.