Dozens of MPs facing allegations of sexual misconduct include three members of Boris Johnson’s cabinet, it was claimed yesterday.

The list of 56 reported under the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) also features two Labour shadow ministers, according to the Sunday Times.

The allegations range from making sexually inappropriate comments to more serious wrongdoing, the paper said.

At least one MP — accused of bribing a member of staff to give him sexual favours — is reported to have been accused of criminality.

Asked by Sky News’s Sophy Ridge if Westminster is a safe place to be a woman, Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden said: ‘I think actually we’ve made big improvements over the past 20 or 30 years.

‘Some of the things that happened, I’m sure, when you were a young reporter and when I started out in Westminster certainly wouldn’t happen now, and I think that’s something that has improved very much for the better.’

But Labour’s Tulip Siddiq, the shadow economic secretary to the treasury, said there needed to be a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to harassment by MPs and those ‘abusing their position for sexual favours or to manipulate staff’.

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The ICGS was set up as an independent process with cross-party backing in 2018 after the so-called Pestminster scandal, which saw the spotlight shone on sexual harassment in the corridors of power.

Dave Penman, head of the FDA union that represents civil servants, said: ‘Whilst some of the procedures for raising complaints have improved, the fundamental balance of power between MPs and the staff they employ has not. Where that exists it will inevitably be exploited.’

A government spokesperson said: ‘We take all allegations of this nature incredibly seriously.’

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer hit out at the culture of ‘rank misogyny’ endured by female MPs in Parliament.

The Labour leader was reacting to an unnamed Tory MP accusing his deputy Angela Rayner of ‘uncrossing her legs’ to distract Boris Johnson.

The PM wrote to Ms Rayner in an attempt to distance himself from the MP who claimed ‘she knows she can’t compete with Boris’s Oxford Union debating training, but she has other skills which he lacks’.

Culture minister Chris Philp said the remarks amounted to ‘abuse’ and pledged the Labour party would try to identify the MP who made them.

‘If anyone is identified as having those views like those which are outrageous and misogynistic, I would expect serious consequences to follow,’ he told the BBC.

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