Revelations about alleged sexual harassment at Westminster must lead to action.

This is the message from former Gillingham MP Paul Clark.

Although he had not experienced or witnessed such acts in Parliament, he says it is vital the problem is addressed.

He said: “Clearly action needs to be taken, and it needs to be taken cross-party, and with the parliamentary authorities because we mustn’t forget the House of Lords as well.

“The solution is straightforward – there should be inquiries and people should have the option to go through some channels that people recognise as safe and secure.

“Where the difficulty comes in is what penalties should be imposed on an elected member of parliament.

“If this happened in any other workplace you would go through a disciplinary process and the result would be dismissal, but there’s no process for getting rid of an MP. Who employs them? It’s the electorate – maybe legislation needs to be changed.

“Legislation needs to be brought in that would allow an MP that brought parliament into disrepute to be banned.”

Mr Clark served as a Labour MP between 1997 and 2010.

Speaking on Monday, Chatham MP Tracey Crouch told the Messenger she had no experience of harassment and was not prepared to comment further.

Rochester & Strood MP Kelly Tolhurst and Gillingham & Rainham’s Rehman Chishti did not respond to the request for comment.