A RESPECTED British MP has outraged anti-rape campaigners by claiming allegations of Julian Assange having inappropriate sex with a woman while she was asleep is not rape.

George Galloway is no stranger to controversy but the MP has been accused of having a “deeply disturbing” view on sexual violence after he made a podcast of his views.

And after he was publicly condemned, he took to Twitter to dismiss the uproar.

In the extraordinary online broadcast, Galloway spoke about the claims being made in Sweden against Assange.

US denies 'wild' Assange witch-hunt claim

Those claims are that he sexually molested, raped and unlawfully coerced two women in 2010; the claims are the basis for the British courts granting his extradition to Sweden that have since been thwarted by Ecuador offering him political asylum.

media_camera WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves court after his hearing at the High Court in London after losing his appeal against extradition to Sweden to answer sex crime allegations. Picture: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Assange has claimed the allegations were false and were a ruse to extradite him to the US to face charged related to the 2010 Wikileaks revelations. A claim Galloway supports.

He graphically went over the allegations and made his conclusions.

“Even taken at its worst, if the allegations made by these two women were true, 100% true, and even if a camera in the room captured them, they don't constitute rape,” he said.

“At least not rape as anyone with any sense can possibly recognise it. And somebody has to say this. Woman ‘A’ met Julian Assange, invited him back to her flat, gave him dinner, went to bed with him, had consensual sex with him, claims that she woke up to him having sex with her again.

"This is something which can happen, you know. I mean, not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion.

"Some people believe that when you go to bed with somebody, take off your clothes, and have sex with them and then fall asleep, you're already in the sex game with them.

"It might be really bad manners not to have tapped her on the shoulder and said, 'do you mind if I do it again?'. It might be really sordid and bad sexual etiquette, but whatever else it is, it is not rape or you bankrupt the term rape of all meaning."

He continued: "I don't believe either of these women, I don't believe either of these stories."

Politician sorry for 'legitimate rape' claim

Rape Crisis England and Wales condemned the remarks as ignorant.

“It sends a negative message to all the women and girls who have experienced sexual violence and a disturbing message to perpetrators,” spokeswoman Katie Russell said today.

media_camera A supporter of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holds up a placard outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in central London. Picture: Sang Tan

Galloway later Tweeted: "Oh how this 'liberal' chorus of Pavlovian reaction must delight the Pentagon!" he tweeted.

"Oh my, what a lot of 'liberal' useful idiots the Empire can count on. It's about WIKILEAKS stupid...!"

Galloway's outburst comes just a day after US Republican Todd Akin was forced to apologise after he said that women have an inbuilt mechanism to terminate pregnancies if they are victims of "a legitimate rape".

Calls for Mr Akin's exit from the race grew on Monday, with at least two Republican senators - Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin - saying he should resign the party's nomination.

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said Mr Akin "should spend 24 hours considering what will best help the country".

media_camera Police officers stand guard outside the Ecuadorian Embassy where Julian Assange has been living since June on August 20, 2012 in London, England. Picture: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Originally published as Outrage over Assange 'rape' comments