Calls for a ban on “sexist” dress codes which force women to wear high heels to work has been rejected by the Government.

It means that employers can continue to insist that female employees wear heels, providing it is considered a job requirement and men are made to dress to an "equivalent level of smartness".

New guidelines on dress codes are set to be issued in the summer following a public outcry over a temp worker being sent home after she refused to wear heels to work.

But the Government has ruled out a change in the law because it believes the existing legislation is “adequate” and already prevents companies from gender-based discrimination.

It comes more than a year after Nicola Thorp was told to go home from work without pay, after she arrived at PriceWaterhouseCooper to work in a temporary receptionist role in flat shoes, but refused to comply with demands that she wear 2-4 inch heels.

Outraged, she launched a petition to tighten legislation on compulsory gendered uniforms, which gathered 152,400 signatures.