Tory MP says female journalists are fuelling Westminster sex scandal and behaving like 'wilting flowers'

'Nobody makes a journalist go and have lunch with a Member of Parliament and drink,' says Sir Roger Gale

Sir Roger Gale has said that female journalists are fuelling the Westminster scandal with impossible-to-substantiate claims

A Tory MP has blamed female journalists for fuelling the sex pest scandal engulfing Westminster, accusing them of being “wilting flowers” for complaining about alleged incidents from years ago.

Sir Roger Gale – who worked as a journalist before entering Parliament in 1983 – said that some women reporters were making claims which cannot possibly be substantiated, leading to some MPs being put “on the rack”.

The veteran MP, who represents North Thanet in Kent, said the sex scandal has now become a “witch hunt” and claimed female journalists may be hurting their careers and those of other women because MPs will avoid having lunches with them in the future.

In an interview with Mail Online, he said: “There are female journalists who after years have suddenly said: ‘of well, you know, I had an experience’.

“I’m sorry, where are all these people coming from who are such wilting flowers?

“Nobody makes a journalist go and have lunch with a Member of Parliament and drink.

“There is no comeback. Damien Green is now on the rack, for what? He is guilty until he is proved innocent.”

Mr Green is under investigation following claims he made an unwanted pass at a journalist and that porn was found on his parliamentary computer in 2008.

Sir Roger said it was fundamentally unjust that some politicians, including fellow Kent Tory MP Charlie Elphicke, had been suspended and had their name made public without knowing exactly what they had been accused of.

Sir Roger said in the interview: “And I’m afraid you (the media) are responsible … well, mainly female journalists are responsible.”

He added that he has taken the decision to stop having interns as he could leave himself open to unfounded allegations.

And he said that he had advised all of his own children not to follow in his footsteps in politics, even though one of them was thinking of doing so.

The MP said that anyone found guilty of rape or sexual assault should be “locked up … and throw away the key".

Last week, Welsh Labour Assembly Member Carl Sargeant is understood to have taken his own life after he was sacked by the party over allegations of harassment.

Family and friends believe Mr Sargeant was given no opportunity to defend himself and some have called for the names of those accused of sexual misconduct to be kept out of the public eye until allegations are proven – in the same way as alleged victims are afforded anonymity.

The sex scandal which began in Hollywood with Harvey Weinstein before crossing the Atlantic and permeating the media, arts and politics continues to grow.

A former House of Commons bar manager has claimed as many as 30 male MPs had pestered her for sex with one allegedly “groping” her.

Alice Bailey, now 25, was just 19 when she began working at Parliament's Sports and Social Bar, where she claims many MPs behaved like “obnoxious old pervs” – although she declined to give names.