A former Liberal Democrat youth leader claims she was "touched up" by senior party member but told to continue canvassing with him because it would "further her career".

Kavya Kaushik, who stood as the Lib Dem candidate in Ealing Southall in 2015 said there was a systematic problem of abuse in all political parties, specifically towards young people, who feel they can't speak out.

She claimed: "In one of my experiences I told someone in the Lib Dems I couldn’t go canvassing with [a senior party member] because he’d previously touched me up.

"The response? 'We all know you’d do anything to further your career. Go out on a round with him.'"

The former activist said: "The big deal with this is that someone then said that because I was ambitious, that it was allowed, and it was a justification for wrongdoing, rather than someone saying 'let's go through the proper procedures and report this', which is what someone in power should be doing.

"She instead made a comment that I was ambitious and I should get on with it."

She said the problem with Bex Bailey, a Labour activist who claims she was told not to report an alleged rape which occurred at a party event, was not limited to one party.