SCOTTISH TORIES were branded “skin crawling” and “out of touch” today after one of the party’s MSPs dismissed the existence of child benefit’s “rape clause.”

Brian Whittle, a Conservative MSP for South Scotland, said “there is no such thing as a rape clause,” adding: “That’s an invention.”

He had been asked about the two-child cap for child benefit under Tory social security reforms, which allows an exemption for rape victims who prove they conceived without consent.