Save the Children is to stop applying for government funding in the wake of the aid worker sex scandal.

Chief executive Kevin Watkins said the charity has volunteered to withdraw temporarily from applying for new funding from the Department for International Development (DfID).

Mr Watkins said he was "heartbroken" at the suspension which will continue until the organisation can meet the "high standards" expected.

Oxfam has also had its DfID funding suspended after the charity was accused of covering up claims that staff used prostitutes while delivering aid to disaster-stricken Haiti in 2011.

The latest move follows the launch of a Charity Commission inquiry into the handling of sexual harassment allegations against two senior Save the Children executives in 2012 and 2015.

Mr Watkins said the reporting of the incidents made his "stomach churn" and that he was fully committed to putting in place the changes that were needed.

"I am heartbroken that we have to scale back our work in areas that we could be, with DfID, driving an agenda that would make a difference to some of the world's poorest children," he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One.

"I am absolutely committed to building an organisational culture that protects and safeguards the extraordinary people who work across our organisation.