Every single person has the right to go to work without being made to feel uncomfortable or, worse still, frightened.

Politics throws together powerful people and young aides who are desperate to build a career for themselves – a career they have dreamt about for many years and worked hard to achieve.

It appears that an atmosphere of fear has grown whereby people who have a grievance feel unable to complain. People worried they would lose their jobs and become unemployable in politics. And the harsh truth is that those fears were probably true.

That has to change – now.

Some MPs have not been meeting the high standards that are quite rightly expected of them.

Whereas most modern workplaces employ stringent processes to protect all their employees politics is lagging well behind. There has to be a system in place in Parliament whereby people can make accusations which can then be investigated.

The parties must now come together and make certain these issues are dealt with and safeguards are put in place to ensure in the future people who work on the parliamentary estate can go to work and feel truly safe.

We welcome the words of the prime minister, the leader of the house, the leader of the opposition and the speaker in condemning this growing scandal. But actions speak far louder than words and now is the time for action.