British Women and Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch has accused a BBC presenter of asking “trivial” and “frivolous” questions after she was questioned about Liz Truss’ appearance on a platform founded by a commentator who joked about the rape of an MP.

Last week, an interview with the former prime minister was streamed on Lotus Eaters, a website set up by Carl Benjamin, who once said of Labour’s Jess Phillips that he would “not even rape her”.

Ms Phillips, the former shadow minister for domestic abuse and child protection, has written to Rishi Sunak to urge him to drop Ms Truss as Conservative candidate.

Responding to questions from presenter Mishal Husain on Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Badenoch said it was not her job to decide which programmes Ms Truss appeared on.

When asked whether it was appropriate for a Tory candidate to appear on stage, she said: “Carl Benjamin is not standing for election, Liz Truss is.”

“It is up to her voters to decide whether she has done a good job or not.”

“It is not your job, or mine, to decide which shows she can appear on because the presenter may have said something inappropriate beforehand.

“We have seen many cases where BBC presenters have said inappropriate things.

“I don’t know anything about the show. I don’t know what he said. And I don’t like to comment on things I don’t know anything about. I think it’s trivial, it’s not serious.”

Ms Badenoch apparently clashed with other journalists during her morning round on Monday when she accused Times Radio presenter Stig Abell of inviting her onto the show under “false pretenses”.

Asked about the Tories’ plans for social care, Ms Badenoch replied: “You know I am not the Health Secretary… I have given you an overall status report on the state of social care. If you want to go into detail you will need to speak to a Health Secretary.”

“You can ask me about economics, you can ask me about equality, so you brought me on your show under false pretenses.”

In an interview with Sky News, presenter Kay Burley said: “I’ll take the questions if you don’t mind” after a misunderstanding occurred between her and Ms Badenoch.

In her letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Phillips wrote: “It is clear that no one prepared to stand on this hateful platform is suitable as a candidate for any political party.

“Even Reform UK voted down one of its candidates after his harmful views and work as a content creator for Lotus Eaters were exposed.

“If you have any decency you will vote out Liz Truss as the Conservative candidate for South West Norfolk. Anything else would show how weak you are and how low the Conservative Party has sunk.”

Ms Truss recorded the interview before the general election was announced and is understood to have no relationship with Mr Benjamin.

Tory leader Richard Holden had previously told LBC he would discuss Ms Truss’s appearance on the programme with her. He said he had never heard of Mr Benjamin and was unaware Ms Truss would appear on his show.

Mr Benjamin, who has a large following on YouTube under the name Sargon of Akkad, failed in his attempt to be elected to the European Parliament as a UKIP candidate in 2019 because of his comments about Ms Phillips.

He launched Lotuseaters.com in 2020.

In a lengthy response, Mr Benjamin accused Ms Phillips of spreading “blatant misinformation and outright lies” about him and said her claim about “despicable views on violence against women” was based on a “joke” he had made.