The former chief executive of Save the Children resigned after he admitted making "unsuitable and thoughtless" comments to three young female members of staff, it emerged on Tuesday.

Justin Forsyth, who is now deputy executive director at Unicef, "apologised unreservedly" to the women after sending them text messages commenting on how they looked and what they were wearing.

It represents the latest scandal facing the charity sector after it emerged that senior Oxfam staff paid prostitutes while working in Haiti following an earthquake in 2010.

Mr Forsyth's resignation from Save the Children came just four months after Brendan Cox, a friend of Mr Forsyth and former chief strategist at the charity, quit following separate allegations of sexual misconduct.

Mr Foryth and Mr Cox worked together at Oxfam and later again as advisors to Gordon Brown in Downing Street. Mr Cox, the widower of the late Jo Cox who was murdered in 2016, admitted at the weekend that he had caused the women "hurt and offence".