All The Disastrous Things That Happened During The First Week Of The Election Campaign

In his resignation letter to Johnson, Cairns confirmed that he is facing an investigation into whether he breached the ministerial code. 

However, he said he was “confident I will be cleared of any breach of wrongdoing”. 

Tory Party Picks Candidate Who Thinks Women Should Keep Their ‘Knickers On’ To Avoid Rape

The candidates a party chooses to stand in a general election are important – they are the people the party wants representing them on the doorstep, at the polls and in Westminster. 

So it looked pretty awful for the Conservative Party when it was revealed this week that they had chosen to stand former BBC presenter Nick Conrad – who once said women should keep their “knickers on” to avoid rape – in the Broadland constotuency in Norfolk. 

In a 2014 radio conversation about footballer Ched Evans, Conrad suggested women were “partially responsible” for sexual assault.

Evans was originally convicted of a rape charge in May 2011. But the conviction was quashed and overturned at a retrial in 2016.

Conrad had said: “I think women need to be more aware of a man’s sexual desire.

“When you’re in that position that you are about to engage in sexual activity there’s a huge amount of energy in the male body.

“There’s a huge amount of will and intent and it’s very difficult for many men to say no when they are whipped up into a bit of a storm.”

He went on to say that if “a woman says no” it was “absolutely abhorrent” for a man to persist. 

But Conrad added: “If you tease, if you jump into bed naked with a man, if you give him all the signals and then he acts upon them, then you are partially responsible.

“What I’m trying to say is that women also have to understand that when a man’s given certain signals, he’ll wish to act upon them and if you don’t wish to give out the wrong signals, it’s best probably to keep your knickers on and not get into bed with him.”

On Thursday, Conrad announced he would be standing down, saying: “Five years ago I made ill-judged comments during an on-air radio discussion for which I made a genuine and heartfelt apology.

“Last night I was honoured to be made the Conservative candidate for Broadland and had hoped to become the MP for a constituency which is close to my heart.”

A Business Minister Suggesting Jeremy Corbyn Might Shoot Rich People

As you can see, there have been some pretty mad moments this week. But the weirdest? Probably when Tory business minister Nadhim Zahawi said he wasn’t sure if Jeremy Corbyn would shoot rich people if he became prime minister. (Yes, you read that correctly.) 

Appearing on BBC’s The Andrew Neil Show on Wednesday, Zahawi – who is the Conservative candidate for Stratford-on-Avon – was asked about Johnson’s decision to compare the Labour leader’s “hatred” of the rich to Stalin’s treatment of Kulaks (more-affluent Russian peasants) in a piece in The Telegraph.