Married UKIP MEP Roger Helmer – who claimed gay people “undermine” marriage – has appealed for “privacy” after a tabloid newspaper published a report claiming he visited a ‘sleazy’ massage parlour.

According to the Sun newspaper, Mr Helmer – who represents UKIP in the East Midlands and unsuccessfully ran for parliament this year in the Newark by-election – was photographed visiting Victoria House massage parlour this week.

The parlour – described by the newspaper as “sleazy” – has the motto “Driving men wild since 1999”, and invites men to “come and play” and have an “adventure of the physical kind”.

Mr Helmer said: “MEPs are entitled to a private life. I work extremely hard and when I do occasionally have time off I enjoy a massage. I hope my constituents will agree people are entitled to enjoy their leisure time as they please.

When asked whether his wife – whom he employs as a research assistant – knew about the visit, he said: “She will tomorrow I dare say.”

Despite appealing for his own private life, Mr Helmer has sought to interfere in the private lives of millions of gay couples on several occasions, claiming previously that he should be able to dislike gay people in the same way as different types of tea.

The East Midlands MEP has also compared same-sex marriage to incest, saying: “If two men have a right to marry, how can we deny the same right to two siblings? Are we to authorise incest?”

He has also described homosexuality as “not a lifestyle worthy of equal respect” and claimed it is fair to see it as “abhorrent to God”.

Roger Helmer previously tweeted in 2011: “Why is it OK for a surgeon to perform a sex change operation, but not OK for a psychiatrist to ‘turn’ a consenting homosexual?”