British MP Mark Garnier has admitted to asking his secretary to buy sex toys, the BBC reports.
Now, U.K. government officials will investigate whether the politician has broken any rules and whether the action constitutes sexual harassment.
Garnier’s former secretary Caroline Edmondson says that in 2010 her boss, then a government minister, gave her money to buy two vibrators from a sex shop in London’s Soho neighborhood.
Edmondson also says Garnier called her “sugar tits,” in a bar, in front of witnesses. He reportedly told her: “You are going nowhere, sugar tits.”
Garnier, who serves as International Trade minister, didn’t dispute the allegations. He told The Daily Mail:
“I’m not going to deny it, because I’m not going to be dishonest … I’m going to have to take it on the chin.’
But he added it was “good-humoured high jinks” and “absolutely does not constitute harassment.”
In the meantime, British prime minister Theresa May has called for reforms to how sexual harassment is reported in Parliament:
“I believe it is important that those who work in the House of Commons are treated properly and fairly — as would be expected in any modern workplace.”