David Cameron’s attempts to safeguard MPs were met with resistance (Picture: Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images)

Westminster’s ‘sex pest’ scandal deepened today after it was revealed MPs ‘resisted’ attempts by David Cameron to safeguard staff against harassment.

The 1922 Committee are said to have blocked attempts by the former Prime Minister to get them to voluntarily sign up to a code of conduct which could have given parliamentary staff extra protection from sexual harassment.

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Mr Cameron reportedly tried to get all parties and House of Commons Speaker John Bercow to support the move, which would have give staff a right to seek arbitration, but met resistance from MPs.

Then in 2014 he tied to get Tory MPs to sign up but faced resistance from the powerful and influential 1922 Committee and backbenchers, according to the Evening Standard.




Committee chairman Graham Brady confirmed it had opposed the attempts to get Tories signed up voluntarily, telling the newspaper: ‘The point made was that this should be an issue for all political parties, not just one.

David Cameron tried to get Commons Speaker John Bercow to support the move (Picture: PA)

‘Our view was that matters of that sort should be for the whole House of Commons, not one side.’

Later, Mr Brady said it would be wrong for one political party to intervene in an MP’s independent employment of a researcher or secretary.

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The senior MP told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: ‘It may be that the House of Commons can do more and can provide better support for people than it does at the moment.

‘What would not be right would be a political party to insert itself in the contract between a Member of Parliament and a member of staff who may not be a member of or a supporter of that political party.’

Mr Brady also backed Theresa May’s calls for a Commons-wide mediation service backed by a contractually binding grievance procedure for all MPs and staff.

Stephen Crabb was reported to have admitted sending explicit messages to a 19-year-old woman (Picture: PA)

‘That sounds entirely reasonable and is rather like the arrangement that the 1922 Committee pressed for back in 2014,’ he told the programme.

The news comes just a day after the publication of a dossier which has accused dozens of MPs, including many Tory MPs in Theresa May’s inner circle, of inappropriate sexual behaviour.

Over the weekend the Prime Minister ordered a Cabinet Office inquiry into whether International Trade Minister Mark Garnier had breached the ministerial code over claims he asked his Commons secretary to buy sex toys and called her ‘sugar tits’.

And Mrs May was also facing calls to suspend a second former Cabinet minister Stephen Crabb after he was reported to have admitted sending explicit messages to a 19-year-old woman he interviewed for a job.

The Conservative Party has been approached for comment.

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