Parliament and misogyny: Some MPs 'feel invincible' claims Helen Morgan

Lib Dem MP Helen Morgan said that she hadn't directly experienced sexism since she won the North Shropshire seat in the December by-election, but that she thought some abuse the "drinking culture".

It comes after several incident in the last week, including the resignation of Tory Neil Parish, who admitting to looking at pornography in the Commons. Two female MPs complained to the chief whip and, after initially indicating on Friday that he aimed to stay on as MP, he decided to quit on Saturday.

Also, Cabinet minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan told a radio station that she had been held up against a wall by a male MP. And last weekend, the Mail on Sunday ran a story in which an unnamed male Conservative MP accused Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner of deliberately crossing her legs in Commons to try and distract Boris Johnson. The Prime Minister has since said there is "absolutely no place" for sexist comments in parliament.

Appearing on Politics Midlands, host Elizabeth Glinka asked Mrs Morgan if she had experienced sexism in parliament.

The North Shropshire MP said: "Well I'm probably unusual because I'm in a party that is 70 per cent women.

"I have to say I don't have any direct experience of that. There's a lot of talk about the drinking culture, and I think that there is a proportion of MPs who are abusing that culture. But I hope most of them aren't.

"I've been for a drink and not behaved inappropriately in a bar and I think that's probably true of most MPs. But there are some people who feel that they are invincible as far as I can see."

Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has also denied there is a culture of misogyny in Parliament, instead pointing to a few “bad apples” despite a series of scandals over the behaviour of MPs as he insisted Westminster is a safe place for women to work.

“I don’t think there is a culture of misogyny; I think the problem we have is people are working in a really intense environment, there are long hours and I think generally most people know their limits,” he said.

He told the BBC’s Sunday Morning show that Parliament is a safe place for women to work, adding: “I think we’ve got to distinguish between some bad apples, people who behave badly, and the general environment.

“There are some bad apples, there are people who have acted very badly, and they should be held to account.”