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Sexist Tory MPs used to mime "weighing breasts" when women spoke in Parliament, Diane Abbott has revealed.

The Shadow Home Secretary told of her experiences over the last 30 years as a slew of claims emerged about sex pest MPs and Cabinet ministers.

Britain's first black female MP said things have improved since 1987 but there is "still a long way to go".

Asked if she believed there was a dangerous culture for women, Ms Abbott told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "Yes, and if anything it was worse when I first became an MP.

"You would have sort of micro-sexual aggression.

"So women would get up in the chamber and Tories opposite would do this gesture like they were weighing their breasts.

(Image: BBC) (Image: BBC)

"There was harassment, there were jokes which weren't that funny - it was partly to do with the fact it was a very male environment - 650 MPs, when I went there just 20-odd women.

"It was partly to do with idea of all these men away from home, it was partly to do with the fact there were eight bars and the very long hours and the bars were open for as long as we're sitting, and partly with the notion that what happens in Westminster stays in Westminster.

"It was worse - it's a little bit better now - but there's a long way to go."

Ms Abbott said she was a young mother when she entered Parliament - so rarely was in bars herself. But she heard stories from other female MPs, she said.

It comes after female workers in Westminster began fighting back against what they describe as years of harassment - with a WhatsApp group naming and shaming MPs and ministers.

Trade minister Mark Garnier now faces a probe after asking his secretary to buy sex toys and calling her "sugar t*ts", while ex-minister Stephen Crabb apologised for sexting a 19-year-old woman he interviewed for a job.

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Jeremy Corbyn warned yesterday a "warped and degrading culture" of sex pests is "thriving" in Westminster's corridors of power.

Both Ms Abbott and Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti claimed they knew nothing of sexist and homophobic comments by the MP Jared O'Mara until last week.

That was despite previous claims about the MP, suspended from Labour last Wednesday, being made on the Guido Fawkes blog.

Baroness Chakrabarti suggested the blog should not "be the arbiter of sexism when that site talks about women as totty".

She added "people should be allowed to go on a journey in politics", but Mr O'Mara "has clearly said some terrible things on his journey".

Speaking of Mr O'Mara Ms Abbott said "that language and that tone is not acceptable in 2017."

(Image: PA)

But she too would not be drawn on whether a Labour investigation, now under way, should reinstate Mr O'Mara to the Labour party .

"I can’t judge because I’ve not seen the evidence," Ms Abbott said.

Both shadow ministers were also confronted with past comments by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who quoted someone else's joke about "lynching" the Tory MP Esther McVey in 2014.

Ms Abbott dodged condemning her colleague, saying instead: "It undermines the case against sexual abuse and harassment if we try to make it a problem of a particular party or a particular faction.

Baroness Chakrabarti added: "I don’t think any party is going to have a monopoly on vice or virtue here.

"To weaponise it would be a huge mistake and make it harder to tackle."

Yesterday, Environment Secretary Michael Gove was forced to apologise for comparing being interviewed to "going into Harvey Weinstein 's bedroom".

Ms Abbott said: "I heard it and I didn't think it was funny - particularly in Parliament, making sexual harassment a joke is one of the reasons it's not being dealt with.

"You've got to realise that it's undermining and demeaning for women and undermines and demeans the institution."