It was December 2010 and I was six months into my first job as a political researcher in the House of Commons. A life-size cardboard cut-out of David Cameron stood behind me in the windowless basement that I shared with a motley crew of other MPs' staff.

The then-Prime Minister was draped in tinsel and sporting a jaunty festive hat. Beryl Goldsmith, Norman Tebbit’s formidable 83-year-old secretary, was bellowing at someone down the phone; a mouse scurried up the mottled wallpaper beside the bins. My boss walked in.

"Look what I asked Caroline to buy for me," he said, gleefully pulling two diamonté vibrators from his shopping bag. This was Mark Garnier, Member of Parliament for Wyre Forest, Caroline was his PA and one of the presents was for a woman working in his constituency office; my first thought – as the sex toys sparkled under the desk lamp – is that this would make a sensational splash in the Daily Mail.

It therefore came as no surprise when I woke up one Sunday last autumn to find the story emblazoned across the paper’s front page. I was also not shocked to read the findings of this week’s survey of Parliamentary staff, which revealed that one in five had experienced or witnessed sexual harassment or inappropriate behaviour over the past year. Meanwhile, thirty-nine percent (rising to 45 per cent if you just consider female members of staff) reported experiences of non-sexual harassment or bullying over the same period.