Dame Laura Cox’s inquiry has laid bare the scale of sexual harassment, intimidation and bullying in Westminster, the vast majority of it targeted at women, whose careers have been blighted by a lack of action on the issue, according to her report.

All of the allegations of sexual harassment detailed in the report were made against male MPs or staff. Women found themselves the target of jokes by gangs of “boorish” male MPs who made lewd comments and sexual gestures and made them answer “offensive and humiliating” questions about their sex lives, she found.

Examples of harassment also included:

Men patting women’s heads and putting their arms around women.

Leaving a hand on their knee for an uncomfortably long time, trying to kiss them, grabbing their arms or bottoms or stroking their breasts or bottoms.

Women being abused in vulgar, gender-related terms if they failed to do something that had been requested.

In her report, Cox said there were allegations of “some atrocious treatment of young women by MPs,” and of “some women being treated as [MPs’] personal servants, with veiled threats to have them moved if they failed to comply with requests”.

Women were advised informally by colleagues to avoid particular MPs or to make sure they were “never in a room alone with them”. Other MPs had acquired a reputation as “serial offenders” for bullying staff, the report said. Again, most allegations were made by women, Cox said.

Staff described almost daily examples of some MPs shouting at or belittling staff, swearing at them face to face or over the phone or being “routinely unpleasant, overbearing or confrontational” towards them and “treating us like servants”.

MPs frequently shouted abuse at staff, including yelling “you’re fucking useless” at close quarters, a phrase described as being used regularly by a number of different people from different departments, the report said.

Abusive language could be accompanied by a violent grab of the hand or arm, staff said. One said they had been made to feel “physically sick … I would find myself crying in the toilets, I wasn’t able to eat or sleep properly and I began to feel consistently unwell.”

Another said they were “shocked by the almost God-like status accorded to MPs, who must always be treated with kid-gloves, and shocked by the level of deference of staff.”

Among other examples of bullying of staff were:

Telling them they are useless and humiliating them in front of others, including taunting, mocking or mimicking them.

Making offensive personal comments about their appearance,

Holding unscheduled meetings or making new demands at a time when staff have to leave because of childcare commitments, in a manner described as “poisonous, vindictive and deliberate”.

Of the 200 complainants who came forward, almost 70% were women, many of whom reported numerous complaints on behalf of others. Women were most often targeted with the criticism that they were “not tough enough” for the job, the report said.

Allegations of sexism and racism also extended to parliamentary staff, the report said, with some managers running teams “like fiefdoms”, with a “macho culture in which women in particular are not welcome”.

Women described always being asked to make the tea or take notes of meetings, and being the butt of comments about why they needed to have a career if they had a husband, or “why do we need another woman in here, we already have two?”

Some members of staff from minority ethnic backgrounds reported racist abuse and being frequently challenged as to their right to be in particular parts of the estate.

Cox said the details showed “widespread, enduring and profound disaffection” with the procedures to deal with complaints, saying it “resulted in the stifling of potential, the blighting of careers and the loss of talented and dedicated employees, many of them women.”